It looks like the folks on twitter are finding more and more information that supports the theory of bitfinex and tether pumping btc together with non-existent money. But you probably already know that.
It will stop one day and I see only two possible outcomes: either tether/ bitfinex scheme collapses and everyone will lose tons of money, crippling all crypto for a long time, or everyone switches to bitusd and everything continues as normal but with less btc pumps.
As per forks - look at bitcoin again, community divide on some major decision is inevitable when so much people are involved. If we'll face similar adoption, there will be forks and not a whole lot to do about it
I think crypto will survive without USDT. There's bitUSD now and we have plenty of supply of Bitshares for everyone. All they have to do is implement bitUSD in their exchanges for ex. Bittrex and Poloniex.