There may be a handful that will follow its own path, but overall most alts will follow Bitcoin. There is no way around it. It is also because investors want to exit during a downtrend. They change their alts into Bitcoin and then sell. That takes money out of alts and out of Bitcoin.
Yes, Bitcoin is always followed by people in general, because it is the basic benchmark for profit even though at certain times some people convert it into Altcoin, but it also won't last long because in the end they will change it back to Bitcoin.