Where else in the world is being in agreement considered ass kissing? Of course, it's always the person who disagrees who calls it that.
There have been many, many occasions where it has been insinuated that I kiss GG's or DD's ass. Trust me, there's no point in that. They see through it and don't respect it. And anyone who is a regular reader of this board has seen me openly disagree with both. I just don't call them cocksuckers or cunts during the argument.
Back to the point - during SE discussions here, I have read that the sites which link to you
may be as important as who you link to. BUT that doesn't necessarily mean that where one's pages fall in the results is of any great impact. Losing those inbound links, in my
opinion, is more likely to cause you problems than maintaining them; assuming those sites are not SE spammers.
Steady as she goes is my rule of thumb.
If you think you are declining in the SEs, you should probably look internally instead of assuming that its the fault of your linking partners. Hell, an improperly setup, or unhealthy, server can cause you huge issues when the bots come-a-knocking. If you are not failing in the SEs, then there's probably little point to this conversation.