It's always been like that. Highest success rate to bring back Sasuke when the Sound 4? was escorting Sasuke would be to send jounins or chuunins. Tsunade would use the excuse that the jounin's are all out on missions due to the combined attack of the Sound + Sand on Konoha. Same thing with the current anime arc in Naruto, but it's an OK one here, due to the fact that Gai's team consists of him, Neji (Jounin), Lee and TenTen who are all capable shinobi.