The Guild is not so much dead as it is stagnant. And it only seems to be stagnant in certain sections. For example, Free moves at a much slower pace than Advanced and Casual. There may be a number of reasons for this. One in particular is the timing as a lot of people are likely in the process of going back to school.

My advice is to find one or two strong Roleplays and stick them to like glue. It usually works for me and I acknowledge the stagnation a little less. Also Roleplaying is still cool, but more and more people seem to find the concept of "joining a Roleplay and vanishing" to become more and more acceptable. 

I don't know why, but it seems to be a new phenomenon.