  An observational approach is presented to constrain the global structure and
evolution of the intracluster medium based on the ROSAT and ASCA distant
cluster sample. From statistical analysis of the gas density profile and the
connection to the LX-T relation under the beta-model, the scaled gas profile is
nearly universal for the outer region and the LX(>0.2r500) is tightly related
to the temperature through T^3 rather than T^2. On the other hand, a large
density scatter exists in the core region and there is clearly a deviation from
the self-similar scaling for clusters with a small core size. A direct link
between the core size and the radiative cooling timescale suggest that t_cool
is a parameter to control the gas structure and the appearance of small cores
in regular clusters may be much connected with the thermal evolution. We derive
the luminosity-ambient temperature (T') relation, assuming the universal
temperature profile to find the dispersion around the relation significantly
decreases: L_1keV is almost constant for a wide range of t_cool. We further
examined the LX-Tbeta and LX-T'beta relations and showed a trend that merging
clusters segregate from the regular clusters on the planes. A good correlation
between t_cool and the X-ray morphology on the L_1keV-t_cool/t_age plane leads
us to define three phases according to the different level of cooling, and draw
a phenomenological picture: after a cluster collapses and t_cool falls below
t_age, the core cools radiatively with quasi-hydrostatic balancing in the
gravitational potential, and the central density gradually becomes higher to
evolve from an outer-core-dominant cluster to inner-core-dominant cluster.
