The steem blochchain operates with two crypto currencies; liquid steem backed dollars and steem invested as steem power.

Steem dollars was designed to be within the range of 1 USD but for few weeks now, the reverse has been the case. Steem dollars has been on the high side. Many steemians has been panicking over the reason behind this as SBD was designed to be within the range of 1 USD.

To me, I believe high demand of a currency, crypto or not affects it's rate. Since steem dollars doesn't require a process to be cashed out, many transactions tend to involve steem dollars. This I believe is the reason behind this.

If steem was to be as high and valuable as steem dollars, then there would be several powering down and lesser steemians with high steem power. If this happens, there would be low earnings from upvotes and the whole experience on the blockchain would be something else.

Steem shouldn't be higher than steem dollars as this would cause many to power down always to enable them access their steem considering the fact it takes 13weeks to cash out. This will drastically affect earnings and the whole steemit experience.