I'm vaguely wondering if this is happening now because the tech industry publicly opposed Trump on the Paris Agreement. It's pretty well known that he makes decisions based on loyalty and payback.
They probably won't even nominate a replacement for six months at the rate we're going, so expect the status quo for a long while.
I highly doubt that. The patent office has it's own problems as reported to HN.[1] I think the real 'fork in the road' is politics behind the scenes. I haven't read anything about the "MAGA" philosphy on American Innovation but I have heard of cuts to government funded programs like the EPA. So it's either going to get better because someone realized that innovation is they key to success(hopefully..please god...just something) or worse because it's viewed as another bureaucracy and thus cut to save money.
They probably won't even nominate a replacement for six months at the rate we're going, so expect the status quo for a long while.