Reading through all the responses. Thanks for the thoughts. It seems like the best solution is honestly just to ask for the game, or to just keep playing and start to "just do" what we want to do with the overall theme and metaplot. We would ask them for permission first for these things, or try to work with them on their preferences for these things... if they were around.
Because while some are reminding that a week is not a problem, people need to be patient, RL comes first, and so on... the problem is that we are not just talking about someone being offline for a week. We're talking about unannounced 3-4 week absences, where no character applications are processed(!), no stat upgrades are done, and no plot inquiries are answered, because only the missing staff are truly authorized to perform these duties.
Not even character apps are done. Would anyone want to wait three weeks for an app reply? This is doubly frustrating because the game is currently quite active and therefore still gets frequent interest and guests, who then find themselves trapped in approval limbo when they app. We lose new players to this.
I have been around this game on and off since its inception, and have a great deal of affection for it, which is why I am reluctant to name it (the current activity and RP are good despite these issues). But it has always gone through wanes and waxes, and it is frustrating to see it going into another ebb in spite of active players due to the absenteeism of critical staff. So I suppose part of this is just a vent as well.
I would like to be respectful of what these staff want for their game, but it gets difficult when you are essentially down to playing in a static corner because true changes need to run through staff who are not around. It may simply be time to work through it by taking de facto control over more of the metaplot... or to consider creating a new game and transplanting all our RP. Both of these options feel as if they might invite drama, but unless they will pass the game to more active staff they seem like the only options.