I've been on there too long, it feels like they died several times over:

* CEO changes

* Creation of new / infinite scrolling UI (and app)

* Restricting content (banning racist subreddits, hiding NSFW from /all)

* Removing popular "AMA" mod (AMA subreddit is kinda dead now, it used to be a huge event)

* introduction of paid APIs / "fuck spez" campaign

I'm sure there's many more but my point is it's "died" many times over yet still it exists; the drama passed, the baseline remains.