Only if you fixate on the trending page. The real problem there is also with the curation emphasis on rewards. People try to dogpile things they THINK will be popular to maximize their curation rewards instead of just voting things they actually read, watched, listened to, etc. and liked.
This is a problem. Though I rarely look at the trending page. It has been rather cyclic and repetitive for the more than a year I have been on steemit.
RE: An open-ended question to @ned and @dan