I'm not surprised the player base is dying; in fact I'm surprised the servers were populated so heavily for so long considering how bad the grind from 30-50 (which consists of entirely one area, Kyoto, to get any decent exp).
I guess C$ is living up to its' name, they still haven't fixed the ridiculous exp curve.
And it wouldn't be hard either.. Quests/challenges would be a great first step to buff.