A series of interesting interviews with Brian Park from 2016. He produced Corrie from 1997-1998, and was known as "axe man" in the press at the time. He did severely alter the show's DNA in a lot of ways, and you can probably say modern Corrie began with him. He also got rid of a lot of the show's writers who had been there for decades, said he felt like they were dead weight like a lot of the characters they wrote for.
http://www.granadaland.org/category/people/brian-park/
Though, as I'm watching episodes from 1995-1996, it's clear the show suffered immensely after Julie Goodyear left as Bet and was in desperate need of some type of revamp. I don't know who thought it was a good idea to bring the Duckworth's into the Rovers - they were a massive failure there and really stunk up the overall show, it just didn't work. Everything else felt like threading water - though probably a lot more watchable than what passes for Corrie these days.