  We present a semiclassical calculation of the generalized form factor which
characterizes the fluctuations of matrix elements of the quantum operators in
the eigenbasis of the Hamiltonian of a chaotic system. Our approach is based on
some recently developed techniques for the spectral form factor of systems with
hyperbolic and ergodic underlying classical dynamics and f=2 degrees of
freedom, that allow us to go beyond the diagonal approximation. First we extend
these techniques to systems with f>2. Then we use these results to calculate
the generalized form factor. We show that the dependence on the rescaled time
in units of the Heisenberg time is universal for both the spectral and the
generalized form factor. Furthermore, we derive a relation between the
generalized form factor and the classical time-correlation function of the Weyl
symbols of the quantum operators.
