You are absolutely right with this observation. @contentjunkie specialized on creating quick no-brainer posts (which is totally cool in my opinion) and upvoted the shit out of them for a very long time (not cool because undeserved quality).
I am still not certain where I stand on the downvoting but what happens here is certainly an interesting disruption of a system that was never intended like this. The market starts to self-regulate. Even though this is supposedly just one individual the effect seems to create a rather positive feedback in the community and many are voicing their support for this.
We will see where this is leading but I don't think it will hurt Steem or Steemit.
I also think the self-regulation in the end will benefit steemit. Where else is this possible?