I used to play ele back in wotlk and a bit during cataclysm. During wotlk the burst was insane aswell, but it was predictable AND counterable. That's the problem with the current elemental design; it's too RNG and it's not counterable whatsoever.
Elemental has been buffed quite a lot compared to wotlk where all you had was earthbind totem and ghost wolf and a 35(45) second CD thunderstorm. Nowadays you've got a 18-22 sec CD thunderstorm + ghost wolf + freedom totem + heals while on the move (elemental heals are extremely strong, especially with healing tide) and insane RNG burst, even higher than it was during wotlk. Currently elemental shamans are basically moving turrets gunning everything down while still being reasonably tanky (at least vs melee).
I know this wasn't really a comment you might've expected, but it's sort of the truth.