Over the past week(with nothing being changed with my plumbed-in Faema E98) my espressos have become weak and with thin foam whereas there always was a VERY thick crema before. I also cannot brew at the same fine grind as before for the espresso will come out in drops. What I've noticed is that the boiler pressure gauge level of 1.3 does NOT drop to a lower # as I'm brewing....it stays in the 1.2-1.3 range whereas it dropped in the past during the brewing process and then returned back to 1.3. Any ideas?

that is the pressure inside of the boiler. I assume your machine is a heat exchanger?

That pressure will tell you nothing more than what the steam pressure is.

Do you have another gauge to tell you the pressure in the water path (group head) ?

What grinder are you using? Do you have a portafilter you can mount a pressure gauge on to check?

take a graduated cylinder - how much water comes out in 1 minute?