I agree on the first point. I'm not too sure about the concept of new manager bounces myself but the so called bounce that people talk about is only in the initial period because the players have a morale boost because they're happy to see the back of the last manager having lost belief in them. Nuno, Mourinho at Utd and Gerrard at Villa are good examples of that. It doesn't always happen either of course.
However the things you mentioned, "fitness, organisation and putting a rocket up the players arses" are all key principles in a Conte side. To me that is him putting his stamp on the team.
The 2nd season did go to shit and he is to blame of course. My personal theory is that he was going through a lot of shit in his personal life as we know and wasn't even with his family so he wanted out. He was doing the bare minimum to get by with us. That seeped in to the players who lost belief in him and they started to do the bare minimum as well. So we lost those principles as you mentioned earlier that made us great in the beginning.
Conte's greatest strength is also his biggest weakness. His passion is one of the things that makes him a great coach. His ability to motivate players. But it's a double edged sword as we saw last his season.
