One of the reasons for the downtrend in Steem might be due to Tribe-tokens from @steem.leo, Palnet, etc. competing with Steem, specifically related to the burning of #ENG tokens instead of the burning of #steem.
In the long run, Tribes, Steem-Engine, etc. will be amazing for the Steem-blockchain, and they still help to this day, but they encourage people to buy something other than Steem when the buyers for Steem are already few, so it at least cancels out some of the price appreciation that Steem-tokenization would otherwise offer.
Either way, #steem is falling in price and it has already fallen a lot.
One thing I want to point out though is that I don't think the Government of China would let Steem die, since it could easily buy up a great amount of the liquid Steem and then have a market for it's propaganda and influence in the West via their stake in Steem ( Check the controversy with EOS ).
I believe China's Government or actors related to the Chinese Government will buy in this dump since #steem actually holds a space in the Top 5 crypto-currencies ranked by the Chinese Government, so China is definitely aware of Steem.
Facebook is also aware of Steem since their logo was partly inspired by Steem's logo, and it's obvious. So I suspect there will be a dump, #steem is already in dumping mode, and I don't know how low #steem will go but I think eventually there will be buyers and it might even be after more cost cutting measures are instated and announced by Steemit Inc..
I suspect the Chinese Government would buy first, followed by other entities like Facebook and maybe @rt-international. This is just speculation, but I suspect that #steem has too good of a thing for China not to recognize & capitalize on it. And I think Facebook and maybe Russia might take heed and invest in Steem at rock bottom prices too because of that (for Facebook it would be a defensive move, for Russia it would possibly be an offensive move against US propaganda and in support of non-USD currencies).
To sum things up, everything has a lifespan and nothing is forever, but I doubt we'll be seeing the end of Steem immediately after this current downturn. I think #steem will survive, and I think we'll all be surprised to see that there were investors buying into this dump secretly.. hopefully it will be more than just one actor like China though.
P.S. Thank you for writing out my request and for tagging me @scaredycatguide. I am a loyal follower of you, I like your insight and I initially intended to write this as a comment in your #steem analysis post 😊
~ @chrisrice