I think both of the Ethereum and Cardano are on a dying phase. The death of Cardano is more visible than Ethereum as Ethereum has the benefit of being pioneer and still is the largest platform for dapps. But competition are catching up like Solana. The competition would keep on getting tougher as better and newer L1 network arrives.
Cardano on the other hand was in development for so long that when the dapps actually started coming, the network is not as close to the new ones in technology and real life experience.
Dying phase huh? Lol, no way man. Both coins are at the top. Cardano is silent but it does not mean it's a sign that the coin is now dying. This is only the same with other top altcoins. Look at Solana. It's also very quite before while everyone else is being talked about but it only shocked the world one day for its outstanding performances. Now it was the other coins who are now jealous at it.
ETH meanwhile, is still stable because it is like Bitcoin who will never get out of style. I think many new projects are not L1 but they are L2, L3's and so on... I guess because its name or number says it all and it might be a little outdated already.
