>>96277971
The dynamic is hard to pinpoint, but once you notice it is impossible to ignore.

My players are pretty easily defined
>2 Wallflowers
>1 Wallflower graduating to Normoid
>1 Normoids
>1 MC
>1 Caller (Recently graduated from Sandboxer)

Recently my caller had to leave for a few sessions and the rest of the players really suffered for it
>Without someone to grab hold of everything and make situations happen, the MC had little to react to and fell silent
>The Normoids and MC worked together to try to get things to happen, but were often confused and just attached to whatever idea seemed most obvious at the time.
>The wallflowers did what they always do, but a little more silent as nobody was telling them what to do
I realized that I had failed to make my game a railroad, growing accustomed to having a Caller to manage the group and grab hold of details.

When the Caller rejoined it felt like a breath of fresh air. Everything became engaging again, the players were all having fun and a Wallflower even displayed signs of becoming a Normie. It was amazing.

Remember, your players are a resource that need to be nurtured. Always push them to be more, but focus on the good ones first. The shit ones have a long journey ahead of them and many just don't have the cajones for it. Best of luck GMs!