It seems like Runes, which launched on the day of the halving, played a large part.
The increase in fees helped miners when the rewards were cut in half but now fees are back down, bitcoin's price has come down 25% and the rewards are cut in half.
What is this doing to the mining industry? Are miners suffering?
They probably are because of the cut of half in rewards. I am not a miner but I think that the most stable will remain. Despite the fees aren't that much, it only means that few are doing transactions nowadays. Are we going to be back when the fees are high? possible and it's only a matter of time. You'd see the network to be clogged again when more demand of runes and ordinals comes in, they were the reasons why we've got that much fees several months ago. And if it won't be about them when the next surge happens, then assume it that whenever bitcoin's price becomes higher, fees will be as well.