This answer is easy and not subjective.
No, Steem the blockchain is not broken, it keeps moving forward every 3 seconds, it is allocating new Steem exactly the way it is programmed, based on the reward pool calculations and our votes.
It is actually functioning beautifully and we still have plenty of witnesses willing to run it. SteemIt Inc is working on reducing the amount of resources it takes to run it as well.
Everything after this point is opinion and open to discussion
Steem is fine.
What I think might be broken is our Story and our Vision. That is a nice problem to have because it can be fixed.
It is as simple as what we tell ourselves and others Steem is supposed to do.
We tell ourselves we are a Content Platform, but that is no longer all we do.
We tell ourselves the reward pool should be allocated to reward content, but much of the time it isn't used that way.
We tell ourselves we need new users, but do we? Some might say what we need is new buyers/investors. I would say I was viewing users as a way to get to investors, but I will not go into that here.
The point is we are setting poor expectations for ourselves and others, and creating a constant sense of disappointment experienced by nearly everyone involved in the project.
We are doing that because our branding and messaging is wrong, not because the blockchain has problems.
People are starting to see that we need to regroup and restructure what Steem is about so that we can more accurately find our value and learn to express it.
I'm not going to go into my thoughts on the specifics of what I think we should say in this post.
Nor am I pretending all is fine. I do want to remind everyone we are operating in what would be considered a Depression in any other economic structure which of course is going to highlight any and all weaknesses and create a survival of the fittest situation.
It is my opinion that we need to work on what the real value of Steem is. Businesses restructure and rebrand all of the time.
In 2019 we should focus on redefining what we do and what methods we can use to define it. This is done in large long-lasting businesses all the time.
Many are already thinking about this and working on it.