Hahahaha, no. Machinist was borderline trash upon release. Bard also saw a substantial decline throughout various portions of Heavensward. The whole reason Bard and Machinist became meta was due to the devs constantly needing to buff them until they pushed both beyond the casters. The only job to never once get benched from the meta has been Ninja.
Probably people overextending 3.4. BLM basically slotted in until Creator, though SMN has a fair bit of popularity. BRD/MCH traded places with one another primarily based on which the devs buffed this patch, and if you ran a heavy physical or magical comp. Only after 3.4 did people start to work out how incredibly OP DRG/NIN/BRD/MCH were.