Everything is fine. A prolonged lull after a big price increase in Bitcoin land is very normal. Completely expecting enthusiasm for Altcoins to dim for a while but there is no better solution for low prices than low prices. At some point, demand will pick up again, in Bitcoin land and Altcoins.
Not seen that in 2014. More of the opposite.
Bitcoinland is only 6 years old, and the current period of not reaching new heights cannot be even called "unprecedented", because we've already had a longer one. The statistical models such as the exponential trendline start to lose their value when their R^2 is not any more the largest of the models in existence.This may happen during 2015, let's see.