I think the the future of steem will largely depend on growth of its userbase. If it is regularly getting more eyeballs on its content, then the value should increase. The community seems committed to trying new and crazy ideas to get new users and keep them engaged.
Yes. But they are not doing anything to foment the growth of Steem outside the crypto-currency enthusiast world.
If they don't create a decentralized environment for content creators which does not force them to leave their own blogs (e.g. creating a "steemit button" for CMS' like Wordpress or Drupal) then I think they will go further down. The concept is not bad, but it lacks a long term strategy.
How long it will depend on user base, User base already involved in making steem big crypto but due to bitcoin price are may be people don't have any trust on steem, may be it has low user base at present.
Steem is not actually working the way it should, because in beginning of steem many people have strong belief on steem that steem would be one of the best crypto after bitcoin, but today nobody has belief on it very soon it will be like doge, But doge is better than steem, it is really securing it's value always.