It's definitely improved in some areas compared to previous Elder Scrolls titles, but I agree that the series's combat overall is indeed terrible.
I remember coming back to Skyrim after a few weeks of Dark Souls and immediately asking myself how I managed to play this game for so long before. I got used to it eventually, but damn was it annoying. I wish the Elder Scrolls would bring combat tumbling and rolling back as an alternative to blocking. That's probably my biggest gripes with the combat system. (Not to mention the removal of underwater combat, removal of mid-air attacks, no reaction to damage save for power attacks, etc.)