This could have been fixed this years ago with a trivial code change to adopt larger block sizes and/or a more frequent block interval.  The core team chose not to, and sacrificed the right now solution for the someday solution.  Either or both would have enabled massively more transactions, made mining more profitable, and driven BTC demand.  Ignoring this was a huge mistake, and it has significantly hampered adoption of BTC as a functional day-to-day currency.

It's not dead; it's crippled.  There are people with the power to heal it, but doing so would require them to admit they were wrong.