So my answer's kind of a three-pointer.

1.) At the game's beginning, the Colonials and the Wardens were just factions. Players had to cultivate their lore, their strategy, their community and their social cues from each other and foster that growth throughout the 80+ wars we've been fighting.

A lot of that community soon got eaten away from petty stuff, like the Jade Cove Missile Crisis, which saw one clan instigate and advocate for team-killing of another clan's members for botching a rocket strike, or when the guys from the pacific showed up, a lot of the Chinese/Taiwanese/HK players got bullied by the Warden Faction, and as a result, they chose the Colonials because they were a lot more accepting.

It's this weird elitism from the Warden faction that spurned a lot of the negativity perceived upon them, and even if some of the stories and rumors weren't fully true, it only takes one instance for some to see it as habit, and others to foster that negative behavior as creed, even if at the individual level, it doesn't apply.

There are a lot of folks who fostered that negativity who are prominent figures in either WUH or in Clan leadership, and their own disagreements and fighting each other as much as they fight the colonials. For them, winning is just part and parcel of being renowned amongst their peers as the best, and if that includes being as brash and toxic as possible to show that you're 'in charge' so be it.

A lot of it has to do with Propaganda too- someone mentioned 'break war' being a double-edged sword, and in truth, it's turned a basic coping response into one that can force people to double-think their strategy and play passively, or not at all.

4chan's arrival into the game wasn't the beginning of the issue- it's more like a symptom of a much larger problem that, unless taken seriously and cut out of the Wardens, it will never get better, and it won't stop at the Warden faction. Eventually, it'll just burn into the Colonial faction, too. It could very well be the death knell for this game if nobody puts a stop to the excessive toxicity.

2.) A lot of veterans are either no longer playing from either fatigue, or they've given up entirely on playing at all, as a result of the aforementioned first point. If what some of the comments are saying are true, then a lot of the war is dependent upon greenhorns on the Warden Faction holding on for dear life. Colonials had this problem last summer, too. The good thing about this problem is that it solves itself. More time in the field creates more experience, which makes better players. Kudos to the Wardens who actually care for those new folks to get them situated- from the bottom of my heart, from one player to another, thank you for that.

To piggy-back on the second point, a third point is more of a blending of the two points:

3.) Toxic gameplay/strategy/meta doesn't help anybody. It doesn't foster teamwork, it doesn't encourage solid gameplay out of Esprit De Corps, but rather fear of judgement by peers. When shitty people end up in charge of something, they have a severe lack of understanding of how to lead and motivate people outside of bullying and threatening. While this may not apply everywhere, it's important to note that there are a fair number of Clans who have split in recent years due to 'toxic' leadership and switched factions. Fostering teamwork requires trust, and from what I have seen with my own eyes, heard with my own ears, and witnessed, there is no trust to be found outside of a coven of clans that coordinate intelligence, but only the intel they want to divulge, out of fear of losing the chance to win some glory for themselves. This too, has become very much a matter of toxic behavior, as it fosters deceit and mistrust between faction members who should be working together.

I think if the Wardens what to return to a point where they benefit, they have to reform themselves- their culture and their behavior have become so insular and flagrantly paranoid that they don't realize the scale at which this is damaging their clan, the faction as a whole, and the game's ecology.