And I do have to say the intimate scenes are a bit more icy then they were in the beginning and few and far between.
I noticed that too.
For a young married couple, really in love and wanting a child, they do seem to have some icyness between them
I don't watch OLTL, but Ghost Whisperer has taken a big gamble that may not pay off. There has to be some reason...some way to save this...or they wouldn't be following this plotline. This has been in the works for some time or there wouldn't have been that scene at the end of last season's finale with Rick Payne noting that there were six people on a curb and only five shadows.

It's obviously been part of the 'master plan' for some time, not something they just thought of recently.
There are a couple of possibilities I can see for the way things are going:
- the actor playing Jim wants out
- someone else wanted the actor playing Jim out
- the writers/producers honestly think the plotline is good and will add to the show
- the writers/producers are 'blinded' by the path they started down and think it's a great plotline
- the writers/producers know the plotline is really lame, but are trying to 'sell' it to the viewers
There are a couple of things I've been thinking about the last episode. One is the 'strangeness' of some of the dialog - especially some of the dialog with Jim's brother at the water:
The brother said Jim needs to cross over now, or he implies it will be too late or something bad will happen. Why would it be too late? Jim just died, but in the past, Mel has helped ghosts cross over who were dead for a long time. So what's different about Jim?
The brother said he will be allowed to change out of his tux when he brings Jim over. Why? What prevented him from changing before if he wanted to?
The whole thing with showing their dad on the other side and Jim can see him
if he crosses over seems very strange. Is it incentive to cross over or a trick to get him to cross over?
All of it could be meaningful (or just bad writing).
My personal guess is that the writers know they have jumped the shark. To me, they seem to be trying too hard to sell it ("if you stick with us, you'll be very pleased." "romantic". etc). I feel like I'm being sold something.