I can confirm on both issues.
I, myself, am a bit guilty of propagating this drama culture. I ended up being a start to how terrible it is today. Lets just say i kind of... Regret my early years.
This has indeed prevented new users from joining this community. I have confirmed reports of it.
A good way to help this might actually be locking the drama board and paying more attention to banning obvious trolls and troll clans.