There are some first glimmerings that the public's fury at outsized executive pay packages is registering in the corporate suite. Cash bonuses for chief executives, a new study shows, declined just over 19 percent between 2007 and 2008—nearly four times the drop in the previous year.

It's too early to know whether the skid means overall chief executive compensation really was dented significantly because CEOs can recoup losses to their personal bottom line with awards of stock options and other goodies.

But the preliminary look at 173 companies with at least $1 billion in revenues makes a good case that the trend is downward, according to the study by Equilar Inc., the executive-compensation research firm.

"If you look at the figures for the end of 2008, the bottom just drops out," said Alexander Cwirko-Godycki, research manager for Equilar.

Median CEO bonus payouts fell by nearly 51 percent for companies with fiscal years ending in November 2008. December was only slightly better, with CEOs taking more than a 35 percent hit. Executives at companies whose fiscal year closed in earlier months of 2008 fared much better.

A clearer picture will emerge next month, when Equilar issues its second annual executive pay review of S&P 500 companies.

"The numbers so far suggest that CEO pay fell last year," said Cwirko-Godycki, "but people looking at a 40 percent drop in their 401(k)s might wonder if the decline is enough to convince people that compensation systems are working properly."

A major target in that debate is independent pay consultants, who earn huge sums to advise on chief executive pay. Pay-setting giants such as Towers Perrin and Watson Wyatt have been accused of creating templates for sky-high compensation that other companies feel pressured to follow.

A nonprofit association of financial analysts and other investment professionals has urged the Securities and Exchange Commission to revamp its disclosure rules so outsiders can see if the pay consultants are truly independent of senior management. Similar moves are underway in Europe to pin down how much remuneration consultants are paid, and to regulate the way they operate.

In this country, median bonuses are still far from shabby. The bonuses—which include performance-based bonuses and cash awards—shrank from $1.1 million to $889,715. Performance-based bonuses accounting for the bulk of bonus payments (about 84 percent) fell 7 percent, to $767,288 last year.

Cash awards plummeted, by 46.5 percent, to $371,300 compared with $694,444 in 2007.