Actually, if you talk to the vast majority of strength and conditioning coaches in the world from Div1, Pro, and Olympic you will find that there are few things more commonly agreed upon than the fact that going to failure on any type of consistent basis is very counterproductive to growth. The only small subsection are the HIT guys who are a rarity and generally favor machines over the more common free weight varriants - and I don't think anyone disagrees that squats, deads, benches, and powercleans are bread and butter exercises when it comes to increaseing muscle mass and athletic performance so when I say HIT is one letter away from SHIT, you know where I stand on both their beliefs.
I shit you not on this. It's a BBing and gym rat thing primarily. The best in the business do not use failure on any type of consistency. They might choose a focused assistance lift and hit it hard for a few weeks (a la Westside/L. Simmons) but nothing like always going to failure on the majority of exercises.
EDIT:
This is a really great thread at meso. It is arranged in a series of topics. The author is one of the finest coaches in the country and he is as big and strong as they come. The whole thing is excellent reading and I highly recommend a complete read - it will be the best 20-30 minutes you spend for your training. The pertinent topic is #3 Dual Factor Theory (single factor being supercompensation which is the essence of training to failure but the typical BBer methods take it to extremes which are very very inhibitive to progress - meaning natural athletes won't do well and drug enhanced athletes will need to take quite a bit more drugs to get the same effect of a solid properly arranged training program). Thread is here:
http://forum.mesomorphosis.com/showthread.php?t=12