"No watershed"
"That Chinese paid and patriot hacking groups were already in decline led iSight security intelligence wonks to rob the agreement of its watershed title of "cybercrime killer"."
Hmm. It must be obvious even to this think-tank that such agreements as the one in this instance between the leaders of the US and China do not happen overnight. There is usually a long process via diplomatic back-channels and at relatively low (and therefore deniable) levels. One possible interpretation is that there were "confidence building measures" undertaken to ensure that both sides could feel confident that neither leader would subjected to "surprises" and end up covered in political ooh-nasty. It would therefore be entirely logical that (looking back) signs of a reduction of such activity would occur for a significant period of time before the leaders of both nations gave their official blessing to it in the form of a signed agreement.