ok, first of all there are TWO different ideas you're trying to tie together....
1) alliances dying off
2) the game losing players

My post there was ONLY talking about alliances dying off, and - as I was talking to the TIE leaders about shutting down - the impression I was given (by being directly told by TIE's leaders) was that no one wanted to step up and lead TIE, and everyone who was left was happy to play with a new group of folks, but some members did leave too.

"2. Do you know the players in EVO, LCN, FIST, and TIE? Do you know them as well as you know your LaF members?"
In short, yes. I talk to evo folks daily, TIE'ers and I were close until they went to LCN and Martin stopped being online as much, and I spoke with Spawn as soon as the Fist'a announcement is made. To think that I don't have my finger on the pulse of what other alliances are up to - from a "what is good for the game perspective" pretty much undermines the rest of your post, so I'll basically just leave it there.

btw I don't know why you're taking that as "badmouthing your customer" either. I'm just discussing a trend that is happening - people choosing to pack up shop or hit a slump in membership rather than working through difficult situations. It's happened to lots of alliances in the past (a major dip in membership or leaving the game altogether), it's happening to others now but for reasons that should be avoided. Over the last two or so years, we've seen a lot more alliances just saying "screw it" and shutting down that ever before, for a multitude of reasons. If Earth had shut down before the SLIT wars and the EC era was actually the EE era, would IX, MD, Sanct and all the other alliances that left that server for at least a while still be thriving?