Step Tourneys - have the players become much tighter or is it just me?

[WSOPWinner2005]

Every step tourney is VERY tight compared to the same amount of buyin (up through $200 + $15 of course) for a regular 50/30/20 payout structure cash tourney.

Anyone else notcing this? Hell I was a 3 to 1 chip leader in TWO Step #1 tourneys at the same time with 3 players left at both tables. I bubbled on BOTH, lol !! These guys just kept folding, I would wait till they had like 500 chips and they push into me I have a face and a high kicker of A4 something along those lines they kept doubling up. Some of it was just luck, but ...

It seems to me all the step tourneys are tighter across the board in a huge way. Could this be because party is stupid enough to send people from level #4 back down to Level #1 etc ? Sending someof the good players down, or is it just everything apparently getting tighter at Party ?