I was part of the main scene for YEARS, and I ultimately expected the f2p main scene to die. It was inevitable. The downturn started with the crash wars among the top clans and the excessively long fights, with no clear winners. The excessive amounts of flaming, doxing, and ddosing. New comers are not interested in dealing with it. I was part of Legacy for a few months, one of the 2 clans (other is zenith) that is attempting to mass recruit via spamming densely populated locations.
The biggest fear of new comers was using an offsite forum and teamspeak. They were only interested in Discord, due to fear of their IP being leaked. Saddest part of all of this, it's adults flaming/doxing/ddosing other adults. The lack of maturity (amazing example is 80% of SharkBrew), is just astounding. I understand the competitive nature of clans, but so many takes it WAY too far. If you ask a random person their opinion on clans, they will say that clans are highly toxic. Doesn't help none that some will follow streamers flaming them and shit. Reddit is filled with screenshots of clans flaming individual players. PvP scene is small as it is, clan scene is even smaller.
Clans have killed themselves. I'm hoping to see a bit of a increase in activity when Jagex implements the clan improvements in game. Hoping less toxic clans will imurge, and partially revive multi clanning. Unsure exactly what they are changing, but i have my suspicions and hopes.
Pvp scene is dying in its entirety. F2p clanning is long gone, p2p is destined to have the same fate if shit doesn't change. Really comes down to leadership of individual clans.