I would say Minecraft is not "dying," it just isn't as popular. And besides that, I feel the game is shifting audiences. The major PvP community has been declining for a while, just because they're the ones switching to other games. So Mojang is moving towards two target audiences: the younger kids, and the extreme engineers.
If you examine the updates released in the last two or so years, they introduce blocks for engineers.
1.8 brought in the slime block
https://youtu.be/dYEOmBaSswo
Need I say more about that block being for the redstone geeks like me?
1.9 updated the way command blocks work, which allows
https://youtu.be/kdKgYEIxhdU
1.10 allowed normal people to use structure blocks. [ATTACH=full]25808[/ATTACH]
These blocks have been in the game since before the initial release. Like command blocks, they are not in the creative inventory. Even if you have never seen one before, you have seen what it creates in your world:
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Now, since anyone can use them, there are billions of new possibilities, such as one genius who had already created a vanilla mod which adds 100+ new structures to your game. In addition, you can toggle which structures spawn, and add your own!
Minecraft in general is moving in another direction, in my opinion.
