With more analytical tools and gauges to monitor property and casualty insurance price changes available than ever before, industry participants have probably watched the six-year-old soft market more closely than any that came before.

This year, the measurement needles barely moved, and the catalysts that have historically inflated premiums to end prior soft markets were nowhere to be found.

The feeling of being stuck in neutral territory–with few signs of price surges and no major indicators of precipitous price drops either–prompted some to suggest that stable to moderately declining price levels represent a "new normal" for the industry.