Granted I'm not as active as I once once, but I still enjoy sailing the Sea of Thieves at least once or twice a week. And I've noticed over the past 6 months or so the Sea has been almost...peaceful. I can only remember one occasion where I was attacked by other pirates, which as a solo-slooper I find unusual. It's not that the servers I have been playing on have been dead; I have sighted many other pirates on my voyages, even launched attacks on one or two ships meself! But pvp has become the exception rather than the norm, at least for me.
Mind you, I'm not complaining - I'm simply interested to see if others have noticed a similar trend, or whether it's just me?