Anyone know what's going on with the Alpereum pool?

I've been using this pool for a while now, due to their low min payout requirement and their low fee. I've noticed in the past couple of weeks it's been getting slower and slower. I understand the difficulty is getting harder over time but the last block this group found was 2 days ago and their statistics show the pool is shrinking up. I know this will feed on its self over time and I'm considering switching now, but does anyone know of a specific cause/event that may have trigger this? I know pool hopping is frowned upon but it may be eminent for Alpereum miners if their hashrate keeps crashing.