If you see people powering down with no apparent reason, then probably they are just becoming bored of the same thing.
If you notice any huge powerdown, before passing a judgement please go take a look of there are some things going on that got old-timers powering down.
Other reason is that from day one STEEM or HIVE, the idea of "earn while writing" has always been there.
Things are getting tougher out there and probably you might notice more and more people need to survive more than ever, and regardless of the HIVE value, food still needs to be delivered on the table.
That's my honest take.
I would think AI's new abilities to craft writing in different styles very rapidly is something that makes finding REAL people to read more challenging too.
You sometimes just need to sift through for good writers, just like a lot of crappy books published out there as well.
With AI technology the rise, even video presented are different and harder to recognise.
However crafty the writing is, prompting is still needed with AI writing; and still beats stealing content (like the early days of STEEM).
Those are nothing but scumbags and till now they are still out there.