I may be wrong but there wasn't the same fascination with the WW1 German Army in the interwar years, even though they were probably the best on a per man level.
I think a good bit is the remnant Cold War mentality where "those sons of bïtches" became "our sons of bïtches". Too many (ex-?) Nazi generals writing self serving memoirs, glossing over their war crimes and operational or gross strategic mistakes. It wasn't all Hitler's mistakes against the advice of "the professionals", there were times like Winter '41 where he was right and they were wrong.
There is a certain turning of the tide in that those who go a little more than skin deep in WW2 history learn that the popular view of WW2 Germany and its armed forces in very deficient. At a tactical and most operational levels the Germans were superior most of the time. At the strategic level they were as dumb as ditch water. The prime example was Barbarossa. There was no clear strategic plan with simple objectives, just a triplet of operational plans. Whether concentrating on Moscow should or should not have been the plan is another question, but they did not decide whether to until far too late in the campaign. A bit like walking through a zombie infested shopping mall, slaughtering most, without even checking where the exits were or if there were any open at all. At the highest operational level they could be hit or miss. Definitely by mid '43 they got out thought by the Soviets and by '44 by the Western Allies at the highest operational level.
They had many sexy toys, far, far too many different ones. Taking just production during the times when the countries were actually at war, the Soviets managed with 4 light tanks (T-40, T-50, T-60, T-70/T-80), 1 medium (T-34) and 2 heavy tank (KV, IS) series. The Germans had 2 light (Pz II F, Pz II L, unrelated except name and gun), 4 medium (Pz 38(t), Pz III, Pz IV, Pz V) and 2 heavy tanks (Pz VI E and Pz VI B). The US got away with 2 light (M3/M5 which had so much in common that they can be considered one (like the Soviet T-70/T-80), M24), 2 medium (M3, M4 series) and 2 heavy (M6 no service, M26). Of the major armour powers only the UK produced more types. Germany even reduced arms and ammo production and released many troops back to industry after the fall of France.
Germany produced in addition a mind boggling number of prototypes and low production other AFV, which it could not afford, unlike the US which could. While the Soviets had 4 light tanks, 2 of them (T-40, T-50) were dropped tout suite once war hit the USSR and the other two (T-60, T-70/T-80) and their components, like engines, could be produced in factories that were not capable of anything heavier. So the Soviets might be forgiven given their desperate '41-'43 situation. And of course too many things (German) were over engineered or on the other hand had component (engines, transmissions, etc) designs that were fine for the original intended design but insufficient for the actual production versions (eg Pz V).
The competing feudal factions in the Nazi state and the underutilisation of industrial capability in the first 2-3 years make me wonder sometimes whether the Nazis even wanted to win, it was so bad. The series of self inflicted production wounds and gross strategic stupidity tempt me into going Full Metal Pitman when I hear about the "wonders" of the German armed forces.
The old adage of the German Army "being good at winning battles but dreadful at winning wars" is so close to the truth.
