This is just global trend, look at top-sellers these weeks (they are not on Elements and you can’t find same quality items there) - their sales fell as well.
Nowadays lots of things in digital world are changing, new demands, new trends, new mobile solutions, new marketing solutions. I see tons of advertisements in instagram which offer me to buy digital items directly from authors. There are lots of new authors who starts to spam copy-cats. But there are also examples of new successful authors as well. Elements make its impact on sales, but not that much as people like to describe here. I judge for myself: on VH I have 3 similar years in a row, earnings may differ in 2-3%. Last year was full year on Elements and average monthly income now is ~80% bigger (if not taxes it would be 100%+ bigger) and it is rising. But I understand it is impossible for everyone to get growth as everybody has different type of portfolios.
Author’s frustration is understandable, there were some month where I had 300% loss, but I had comeback to work, reconsider my portfolio and now I’m on the level of my best year on VH.