I am just throwing out his idea to see what the response is (I can't remember having seen this come up before, but it sure must have, I just skimmed the last couple of pages)
Make banners, statues, future fun athority objects, maybe even idols have a (slow) rate of decay.
I'll wait listing the pros and cons while lookin at the response (or lack thereof), just noting that the change itself should be fairy simple codewise (needs some logic as to what happens when e.g. a "conenctive" object disappears, and even more logic rules if even an idol can disappear).