Delta Medallion - Go for the Gold or stick with Silver?

I have consistently been a Silver Medallion member for a number of years. I have obtained MQM by flying and by spending on an AMEX Platinum Delta Skymiles Card.

I have consistently had a fair number of MQMs rollover each year which has made maintaining Silver Medallion status easier and quicker. As such, the number of MQMs I have rolled over has steadily increased to the point where this year I will be getting extremely close to Gold status.

If I achieve Gold status it will be by a slight margin. If I understand the program correctly, I will then have a relatively small number of MQMs to rollover next year.

This will make it a bit of an uphill battle the following year to get to Silver Medallion so I am contemplating either not flying Delta towards the end of the year or curbing spending on the AMEX card and using some other rewards card.

Am I missing something? If I am Gold next year and, because of the small number or rollover MQMs, fail to reach even Silver for the following year will I then lose Medallion status all together or is there a step down of sorts?

Seems to me that there is a built in disincentive to fly or use the companion card in scenarios like this.