Not that I am a perfect merit earner or poster. I am just an average member and from this perspective, to me, it seems there has either been;
A. Depletion of spendable merits among members like me due to low merit circulation.
The sMerit distributed among regular posters vary greatly from month to month. Sometimes such regular posters can gain a lot of merit in one month, but will lose a lot of merit income in the next month. I mean, they are not consistent in the quality of their posts so many people may tend to ignore their posts for quality reasons and not meeting their standard.
B. A drop in the number of active merit sources.
C. A drop in forum activity.
There are 108 active merit sources currently with a total merit gain of up to 32,890 sMerits per 30 days as hugeblack said, but their merit distribution activities may sometimes be lower due to personal reasons. Previously the merit source was 109, but now it is only 108, it is decreasing.