The only major trend I see is the perennial one of drawing conclusions about trends. People base this on the limited sample of what they happen to notice and dislike and remember. Such 'trends' are in the eye of the beholder. This becomes obvious when you see how many comments like this get posted and how contradictory they are.
For example, HN has a plethora of stories about abuses at and by major corps and they often stay on the front page. Someone with a more pro-business bias would look at the same front pages as you and see the opposite 'major trend'. In fact I'm sure someone is, right now.
As for shadowy brigades of astroturfers behind story flagging, that is so classic a cognitive bias that we just ask people not to go there. The users who flag stories you favor aren't shills—they're normal users like everyone else, who simply have different views about what belongs on HN. Exceptions to that exist, but they're so rare as to have zero explanatory power. If you want more info about this, I've posted countlessly about it: https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&prefix=true&page=0&dateR....
For example, HN has a plethora of stories about abuses at and by major corps and they often stay on the front page. Someone with a more pro-business bias would look at the same front pages as you and see the opposite 'major trend'. In fact I'm sure someone is, right now.
As for shadowy brigades of astroturfers behind story flagging, that is so classic a cognitive bias that we just ask people not to go there. The users who flag stories you favor aren't shills—they're normal users like everyone else, who simply have different views about what belongs on HN. Exceptions to that exist, but they're so rare as to have zero explanatory power. If you want more info about this, I've posted countlessly about it: https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&prefix=true&page=0&dateR....