Less activity? I don't see it unless you miss the endless gas versus diesel or Ford versus Chevy arguments that are not going to change one person's mind anyway. I still see a lot of new topics or takes on old topics that bring out some new and interesting responses. There are still a lot of "Mine is better than yours" comments, but also a lot of really practical and useful information.
I did a quick search on the word "Search" and it is mentioned in about 9,000 posts in the last 12 months. I don't think we need to constantly remind people to "Do a search".