A lot of countries are closing on file-sharing (I was in UK a couple of weeks ago and it was impossible to access mininova, kickass or rarbg) but I don't feel the scene has died at all. There are a lot of private trackers, which also require a good level of responsibility sharing back. It is certainly more difficult to find things online, but once you find a way, it's the same as before. At least that's my take on it. Except apps and games. I find it ridiculous that a lot of content it's only accessible through mobile apps (not that you can open a VM and run it from there), but the average user doesn't know that.
Well, it's not so much that the scene is dead, it's more that the legal battle has been lost. The MPAA has free reign and DRM is still widespread. Sure, pirating is still pretty much as healthy as before, but as you said it's been buried under a pile of shit and it's fending off attacks from all sides. Piratebay is still raided regularly. Tor hidden services are pretty much easy pickings for law enforcement now. The freedom of the net is slowly going away, and the only group doing anything meaningful is the EFF -- and they're not terribly effective.