It's current users I'm talking about... I know more than a few who are fed up with the constant spam and are powering down. They aren't getting votes anyway, since everyone either upvotes themselves or uses their vote to pander to whales in the hopes they'll notice them and upvote their post one day. Actual users outside the whale pool are mostly ignored.
(Including a published writer who was using Steemit as prelaunches for his books/stories/etc... a sad thing for us to lose as "content" goes.)
His view on it, when conversing on how he should move his power down to USD:
"i've decided to power down my account on Steemit. i'm bored with the site; i average about 5 people viewing each post and the drama there is just...stupid. i've had my fun. time to cash out."
then later:
"yeah, i can't get shit for interaction out of anyone any more, which is why i'm good on just bailing on the site in general. move it out, do something else with it."