In OTL, Brezhnev died November 1982, by which time KGB chief Yuri Andropov had been the Kremlin eminence grise for the better part of a decade. In many respects, Brezhnev's death simply formalized Andropov's rule. That being said, if Andropov had controlled all the levers of power 5 years earlier (Nov 1977) would he have been able to better "capitalize" on the high oil prices of 1979/80 or implement enough reform to give the USSR a few more years?