It was quiet before free listings, and has just got worse, thank heavens for best offers.
I cannot think that free listings are directly responsible, but it may have produced more new sellers and a lot more items. More choice and more give away prices spoiling it for other sellers.
The reduction of listings to 300 per month for Private sellers, will really not affect genuine small sellers, and for anyone prepared to list using BINs Good till cancelled, at 300 a month would soon build up to over a 1000 active listings.