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I've just recently finished writing a dissertation, which I made using LaTeX (in Kile). This had been the biggest project I've made in LaTeX up until now and it made me realise a serious flaw: while LaTeX tries to separate content from layout it fails at this. In the final phases a lot of tweaking was necessary to get the desired layout. Even worse, when slight changes had to be made to some sections the entire layout of the following chapters got screwed up again...

I believe the actual layout really shouldn't be controlled by LaTeX code, but by using a separate postprocessor application. This application could show the file (in my case a pdf file) like okular does, but with a few changes:

1) It highlights the changes since the previous version. This in itself would be a great help as then you'll at least know where the layout has changed when you changed something in the text so you don't have to read 50+ pages to find out where the layout changed.

2) A drag and drop interface to move stuff, such as pictures, around. This allows you to tell LaTeX exactly where you want the image to go, without messing with the code.

This would enable the user to use LaTeX for writing the contents (what it was made for) and a seperate editor for the final layout. This editor could also be used in conjunction with other LaTeX editors (such as Lyx).