These tend to be called Bridge Cameras as they bridge the gap between P&S and DSLR's.

Imo there's nothing really that fills the gap. In all fairness even the cheaper DLSR's are a compromise in the first place but at least you can swap the lenses. For instance the 6500fd (which I do like a lot) pictured isn't that much better than the F31fd really and the lens while better still doesn't really wind back more than 35mm in real terms.

Fuji used to have this market totally wrapped up and in some ways they still have, however the decent point and shoots with manual controls are fast catching up. It's a tough decision but anyone looking at the better bridge cameras like the fuji 9600 and such should seriously consider something like a 2nd hand or reconditioned D70's or similar.