"The steemit community are starting to realise the only way to make any headway is to ride on the coat tails of the whales"
That is the WRONG way to go about it, and it will ensure the failure of the platform.
I go through all the "new" posts everyday and upvote and comment on meaningful topics that help people individually or the world as a whole to improve and better our current condition. I also upvote material that can help steemit become better.
Why don't other people do this? They are focused on making money, so they upvote popular personalities and right the wagon... and they also don't want to put in the time and effort to do it.
The community, whales and everyone, is to blame for the community's success or failure.