I think google nuked exact match domains... I need help

Here's the deal. Few months back i finally found something i could make money at online... micro niche sites. Since then i've been using strictly article backlinks and social bookmarking backlinks and have seen my sites slowly climb the ranks, some to the 1st position. Let me also mention i've seen my sites do the google dance before and what has happened recently is not a google dance to my knowledge.

About 3 weeks ago all, and i mean ALL of my sites (16 of them) dropped between 3 and 10 position on google ranks. SOME of my sites including My BEST site which was in 1st COMPLETELY disappeared from the search results. All sites are still indexed but have lost rank. I thought it might be something I PERSONALLY was doing wrong with my sites, but lo and behold i noticed my competition's exact match domains ALSO DROPPING in ranks at the SAME TIME.

I've even gone over several old keywords that i researched before and remember seeing some micro niche exact match domains of other people in 1st position with MASSIve amounts of backlinks only to find them ALSO dropped several positions. This appears to be a wide spread across the board nuke from google.

My first question is is anyone else using micro niche sites with exact match domains experiencing this? If so, have you been able to start climbing the ranks again at all since it happened? It's been 3 weeks since the drop and NONE of my sites have moved an inch despite more backlinks.

Another question is whether or not this could be the end of exact match micro niche sites? If not i'm trying to decide whether the extra work that is going to be required now is worth the money being made. Don't get me wrong, i'm fine with it being harder but so far i haven't seen any of my sites improve from this drop in rank.

My next question is i really would like to expand my backlinking profile so i was wondering from anyone who does things other than social bookmarking and articles what types of backlinks you do and as much info or detail you could explain to help me overcome what has happened.

Again it's been 3 weeks so far and none of my sites or any of the other exact match domains i observe across the net have returned to their original positions (or even advanced ONE rank). So i really don't think this is a google dance. I think google has done something serious across the board that has affected all exact match domains. I don't think has anything to do with backlinks, content, or anything like that because i see it happening to TONS of other exact match domains. I think this is targeting exact match domains. What do you guys think? Am i losing my mind?