A note to users who don't see any Quote/Flag/Like icons or the Reply window: my issue was resolved by re-logging into the forum (admin, please disregard my form submitted earlier today).
As to the new layout, it is definitely clean, but seems to use a lot more screen real estate than the old version (much more white space).
I agree that having the navigation links also appear at the bottom of the page saves a lot of scrolling.
Dave