And a number of other notable names have come forward to take their place. Those people may be gone, but their positions and status have passed onto the newer generation of players. Some people might not accept this change of hats, but they can't deny it from occurring.
Again, it's not "dead", it's simply different than what it was before. But if you want to try and make the present in the image of the past, you'll have to boot out the new guys and convince the likes of Graveyard, Mr_Gears, and Reven to get to the top again.