I've been into Simon Cowell's office. (long story, but I have a mate with an indie label who liased with someone at BMG and needed to do some very brief business with Cowell).
In his office, Simon has shelf after shelf of CDR's containing unsolicited and unheard 'pop' songs. He estimated that there were easily around 5000. All of these songs - he believed, were formularic enough to become hit records. He could essentially pull any CD off the shelf at random, send it down to the studio to re - produce with a more 'now' feel,and hey, a hit.
His attitude was that 'all the songwriting has already been done'.
The guy's a philistine - obviously, BUT ...he's a power player in the pop market, and it seems he has it sewn up for the near future at least.