This month, the total sent merit has decreased by 4075, or about -15%.
Oh, snap! That's not a good thing, is it? But I could almost figure that out in my head just by looking at my position for last month, because I was relatively lazy as a merit source and yet still came in at #8.
The number of merit dropping in November is not surprising to me. I expect the number of merit sent in December to drop further, before rising again in January (assuming nothing happens to spike the amount of merit being sent, such as sources getting an extra refill or an allocation increase.
I would hypothize the above being due to the Thanksgiving (and Christmas/New Years for December) holiday, as many people like to spend additional time with their family during this time, and also tend to travel more.