Are Leagues deflating ratings?

Presumably, every loss to someone's rating is offset by someone else's gain in rating.

There are only 76,000 players in the Silver league. They are the ones who have expended the greatest efforts to date.  I doubt that 76,000 people can do much to change overall rating distribution in leagues with five million players.

I've been playing more often than normal, trying to see how hard it might be to promote. I seriously doubt I'll be able to hit Champion, based on how much I've had to play so far, but might be able to hit Crystal. Unless I'm extremely lucky to get placed in a less competitive division, that's likely my limit.

That said, playing more, especially while tired or distracted has seen my blitz rating fluctuate by a lot, though I've been able to keep it within a 100 points range for the most part after sessions. I just suck at faster blitz, often using too much time.

My rapid attempts have so far been better, but I figure it's a mix of not having a lot of rapid games and running into players that are playing when they shouldn't be either. 

That all said, if people are obviously dropping rating to do better in leagues, they should be reported.

https://support.chess.com/article/209-how-do-i-report-someone

I think tilting is a big part of it too. It is something that plagues me when I play too many games and see myself losing to simple ideas that I wouldn't make if I was fresh. And then that compounds into automatically hitting the "next game" button and playing fast and annoyed which leads to more mistakes, etc. And then before I know it my elo has tanked 200pts.

That's part of why I'm looking forward to getting over the last league (and maybe the next, if I am lucky and am placed in an ultra uncompetitive division) and going back to IM Bartholomew's advice of playing a set number of games each day regardless of outcome

League are awesome and friendship.