Law.com has published an interesting article titled "Who Killed the Mass Tort Bonanza?"
The opening paragraph: "The power of the plaintiffs bar is on the wane in this country, and will be for a long time to come." Followed shortly thereafter by this: "Neither [business interests or trial lawyers], however, would deny that the civil justice system looks drastically different than it did even two years ago. The true triumph (or tragedy, depending on your perspective) of the tort reform movement has been its ability to leverage the success of its public relations campaign into concrete and hard-to-reverse changes. State legislatures have passed laws that undercut the trial lawyers’ successes in Washington, D.C. — especially in the asbestos litigation, which has declined precipitously since the early 2000s. "
This article has done a nice job of explaining the current lay of the land in mass tort litigation.