Whatever Happened to all the DK Tanks?

I know there's a supposed shortage of Tanks in WoW at the moment, and you can kind of tell. I often get random whispers from pugs asking me to tank Onyxia 10, Sarth, or VoA
I usually decline them simply because I'm doing other things.

If a freind or a guildy asks I'm much more likely to say yes though.

But when WotLK came out DK's were all the rage. They were the apparent answer to the shortage of Tanks in the game. And it worked... for a while... sort of.
In the past few months, I don't think I've seen a single DK Tank around. I definitely havent been in any PUGs with them. And DK's in general seem to have dissapeared in to the woodwork.

I suppose that's only to be expected. All MMO's are bound to have a flavour-of-the-month and maybe the polish of the DK has finally worn off. I never really enjoyed mine that much, but I'm the sort of person who'll wait until everyone else has got bored, and then have a go myself. Maybe that's what'll happen with my DK.

Since people play WoW for fun, most of them don't neccesarily want any responsibility in the game. And this seems to put a lot of people off when it comes to tanking.
It's almost like there's a pressure on tanks to be the best. Tanks are expected to lead, to know all the encounters, to be imba overgeared punch-bags that can take a beating while keeping everything under control.

Healers are in a similar position, but they don't seem to have quite as much pressure on them as the Tanks do.
For some reason, at the bottom of the responsibility list is the DPS.
Before anyone starts jumping down my throat for saying all this. I've played at raid-level as all 3 of the trinity, and this is exactly how the pressure is distributed in my opinion.

But why?

I've tanked Ulduar and some Naxx. I don't know all of the encounters like the back of my hand. I don't speak in raids (which I admit has it's own problems). But we have good raid leaders who can point me in the right direction.

It's not just like this in raids, it's the same in any group-play.

If the DPS sucks, people are much more forgiving than if the tank has 21k HP or isn't uncrittable.

If the tank was a little crappy but the DPS and Healers were overpowered, then the group can still succeed, but probably with great difficulty.
If the healer is undergeared / crap but the Tank and DPS are overpowered, then the group are very likely to succeed, with only a little difficulty.
If the DPS is undergeared / shite but the tank and healer are at least capable, then the chances are that the group will still win, even if it takes longer than it should to kill the mobs.

Everyone has heard of 'Over-Aggroing' but there's also such a thing as 'Under-Tanking'. Sometimes the Tank just doesn't react fast enough, or doesn't have the skills for the job. But once the tank has some experience under his / her belt this is quite rare.

If the DPS pulls aggro they expect the tank to pull it back. Like the tank doesn't already have enough to do controlling the attentions of all the other mobs, or the bosses, the DPS assume that it's the tanks job not to let the mobs run wild, rather than their job not to cause the problem in the first place.
Healers get a bit of a free-pass on this one, as it IS the tanks job to keep the mobs off the healer.

In my case I use the /Focus command alot. When I'm tanking the focus is my main-healer, and when I'm healing my focus is my tank.

The tank is also expected to know which mobs must go down first. Some of this is common sense. But if the tank is focusing on a mob then the DPS need to aim at it, even if they think they know better. By all means tell the tank they've made a mistake, but they should not EVER attack anything that the tank isn't focused on. Unless asked to by the Tank or Raid Leader. It's just asking for a loose mob and a wipe.

I think the DPS classes tend to just play in their own little world, with no real understanding of how tanking works. They don't understand about taunt-cooldowns, or shield-walls, or consecrations, and all the very important stuff that keeps them alive. But the Tanks need to know who else can stun, and who can heal, and who can afford to take a bit of punishment, and make decisions about who to save first if a mob does get loose.

The responsibility should be shared across the whole group. And I think that's why the Munqui raids work so well, simply because everyone is usually well aware of their roles, and has faith in the others to stick to theirs.

If the DPS don't overaggro, and if the healers don't lose their focus, then as long as the tank has enough gear (which can be a challenge in itself) then it'll almost always garauntee a success, even if they're not the most experienced player. So why is all the pressure on the tank.

There's plenty of viable tanking classes in the game, and they're even good for levelling in that spec so all that responsibility on the tanks shoulders must put a lot of people off.