In biological terms, when the surface becomes hard and crusty and ever more disconnected from the underlaying tissue, it's a scab.

So people, as the individual cells, will come to sense this split, with those seeking life pulling back, while those who've sold their souls shrieking ever louder, through the largest megaphones.

We can only wait for the fire to burn down a bit more, before enough people accept the old has died and the new is struggling to be born.