We thought our ten year old Kitchen Aid had finally died.  After the usual grousing about how they aren't making anything that lasts anymore I started price checking new dishwashers online.  How did these things get so expensive?  While there I stumbled upon what was really going on.  By law the dishwasher formula has been changed to drastically reduce the amount of phosphates.  Turns out the phosphates or lack of them is the real culprit here.  So before you go replacing a perfectly good dishwasher check out these links here and here.  We've switched from Cascade to Finish gel and it's done the trick.