The free downvotes and encouraging that they are used liberally is the cancer. It's creating an undesirable atmosphere. I agree with what planter said tbh.

"Self votes are cancer in society. We see it is a terminal diagnosis from extant user retention. Here's how to cure it: make post and comment payouts limited, below the point at which it is worth financially manipulating the rewards mechanism to profiteer from it. While that can be improved by giving 15 Steem to new account holders instead of delegating it, that doesn't even matter either. End profiteering and Steem will grow. As long as profiteering is baked in, no matter what form it's baked in as, Steem is doomed to fail."

^ This is how the markets evolve. You can think about Steem only withen the realm of the box. Outside of the box there is the token itself and it's value in the larger market. Appealing to people's self interested by allowing larger votes to bigger investors is what grows the value of the coin. Trending can be fixed to show more valuable content without free downvotes.