[Gogar]

The answer is YES it can go bad.

I had a first-gen intel MacBook (2007?) and experienced the exact same problem at home. I even bought a new airport wifi transmitter hoping that the one I had was going bad. No change. I wiped the whole computer and started fresh. No change.

New laptop, problem gone. The antenna is around the screen, and I imagine that after thousands of opening-closings, the connection could have gone bad.