> Because it seems obvious that watching one's hard-earned score shrink would be a bad experience.

But it's a Q&A site, not a point-gathering exercise. Leave the displayed score of the answers/questions but decay the benefit the author gains from it.

Indeed, but if you've put in a lot of work asking/answering good questions and they reward you with standing then it sucks to suddenly start losing that. There is already a certain level of inflation in that those who are continuously active will keep raising the bar. I am rather proud of my contributions and score on SO and don't want to see that go away