I can't understand, why miners stop mining. If they sells asics, other man become miner. Difficulty never go down.
Higher fees not recover situation.
Dead of the bitcoin become fast, likely noprofitable fork.
Is it you, Yoda?
Fees have to rise when block reward falls. Miners need incentives to mine. I like the idea of tiered fees. Example 0.001 for next block confirmations, and 0.0001 for 10 blocks and 0.00001 for 48 hours.
The block reward is currently enough incentive for mining and that won't change that fast.
Also, if I wanted 48 hours for a confirmation, I could use the old banking system ...