I think majority of the new comers on the platform come with the sole motive of earning money. They don't really come to share their ideas or their thoughts with the community and as you said, after some time, they leave.

The minority who actually want to be a part of the community are still not in a position to up their standing on Steemit. Whales, orcas, and dolphins are less in numbers but they hold a big majority of all the power and eat the biggest share of the reward pool.

Original content creators who are still minnows have to struggle way too much to get attention on their posts. Out of them, some give up and think it's not worth the effort and the remaining keep struggling.

But I recently read an article showing that whales are actually losing their power.

So I guess not all is gone to crap yet..