I agree, discussion has been more and more limited. I think part of it is that there are too many different forums now: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other websites. Unfortunately, our profession is pretty small so that everyone struggles to maintain a critical mass. If you have a suggestion to change it, I think Core and everyone else would love to try and change that!
We don’t plan anything. You bring up some great points though. Hard to tell how all of the political change will effect design. The Bank of Canada said yesterday that they can’t adjust their economic projections because they have no idea what US policy will be in January. I think we’re all in that boat now.