I know that. I've spent the better part of a day out there helping free debris from the rotating rings. We're presumably not exposed to any greater amount of space junk than we were before, so it stands to reason that the first thing to go wasn't the gravity- it was the system that kept that krem from getting wedged between the rotating segments.

[Because if he's right, and the two things happening simultaneously means they're linked, then that means they should be able to guess at the root cause.]

What would cause a sudden change in ring rotation, as well as be linked to human consciousness? Some kind of shielding deactivating? Or possibly flickering energy, diminishing suddenly due to the sudden increased use?

The more that happens here, the more incoherent this all seems.