Google frowns on reciprocal linking

This is a subject that everyone seems to be arguing about at the moment. Everyone trying to second-guess Google's actions - which they will NEVER do - and wondering whether reciprocal linking is dead, dying or if it is something worth carrying on.

'Nuff of the speculation. Here's the proof.

Google do not like reciprocal link directories and they can sniff one out a mile off. There was (notice the use of the past tense here) a link directory on my site until recently, but I have now removed it, because it had become as useful as a chocolate teapot.

Whilst the main front page of the site has retained it's Google PageRank of PR5, in one of their last updates, Google relegated that directory, which had also previously had a PR5, to a PR 0.