are people still carb depleting/ tapering in the week or so before a big race, then loading up the day before or has this pretty much fallen by the wayside?
The depleting part isn’t really done any longer. It is said that you get most of the benefit by simply loading. No need to deplete first.
Workouts while carbohydrate depleted are miserable experiences anyway.
People still do taper.
i know quite a few xc skiiers who still do the deplete thing and still swear by it. xc ski racers are just that way, laugh if you will - tell them they are out of date, but elite xc skiiers have forgotten more about performance enhancing cheating than most will ever know, and they knew it first ( not that carbowhatever is cheating).