Minecraft started dying due to Microsoft buying it in my opinion, the reason i say this is because before they bought it the game was actually fun and was basic. It had the regular combat that we were so used to and i just liked it more. The new combat update and up is what really fucked up minecraft. It just took away from the original mechanics of the game and how it was when it was released. They updated it and changed it so much that its not the minecraft that we once knew. Thats why its dying out because no one likes the changes.