Steve Gerber and Sal Buscema left the book after issue 41. Gerry Conway wrote the next couple of issues, then co-wrote the next two with Roger Slifer and David Anthony Kraft. Then Slifer and Kraft did a couple of issues together, and finally in issue #48, Kraft took sole writer duties, and remained on the book for another 20 issues, although several of the last few were co-written with Ed Hannigan.
After Buscema's departure, Keith Giffen stepped in as penciler for the next 12 issues, his style varying pretty widely depending on if he's inking himself (like the picture above), or it's being done by Klaus Janson or someone else. Then it fell to a variety of artists. Carmine Infantino, Ed Hannigan, Jim Mooney. Buscema returned for the "Defender for a Day" storyline.
Dr. Strange leaves the book, because he feels it's distracting him from his greater duties, and the team relocates to a farmhouse/riding academy Nighthawk owns in the country. Luke Cage bows out, and the Red Guardian returns home because the KGB is threatening her mother's life. It turns out to be some mysterious genius/asshole named Sergei who wants her to be his obedient bride as he turns them into energy beings. Just get one of those anime girl pillows, dude. Or invent them if they didn't exist yet.
(It surprises me that's stuck all these years later. I mean, Busiek used Sergei/The Presence and Tanya in his Avengers run, and as far as I know, it's still the status quo that those two live alone together in the radioactive zone in Siberia Sergei created giving them their powers. Tanya's more interesting of a Red Guardian than the usual model, which is just Soviet Captain America, which is probably not all that different from Mark Millar's version of Captain America, now that I think of it. A jingoistic asswipe.)
It's not all defections, though. Hellcat shows up in the last story before the other three depart, ultimately becoming one of the characters I think of as a core Defender. Certainly more than the Surfer, who hasn't appeared in almost 60 issues by the end of Kraft's run. Namor swings back in because of the damage to the oceans Sergei's work is causing. Moon Knight pops on for one story. Claremont writes a fill-in issue, so naturally Carol Danvers guest-stars.
"Who Remembers Scorpio?" is probably the best known story from this run, as Nick Fury's older brother, stuck in a mid-life crisis and dealing with feelings of worthlessness and inadequacy next to his brother, tries to create his own Zodiac of artificial beings to have someplace to belong. It doesn't work.
After that, it's probably the aforementioned "Defender for a Day", where a college film student and would-be auteur, called Dollar Bill of all things, does a film on the Defenders and claims anyone can join. So a bunch of heroes show up to join, and decide they should capture their new teammate the Hulk (always a good idea). Meanwhile, a bunch of villains run around calling themselves Defenders and committing crimes.
Kraft makes Nighthawk team leader after Strange bows out, to mixed results. Kyle's gung-ho, but struggles to really assert any control, and with his temper, doesn't have the light touch Strange and Valkyrie can use with the Hulk. Val is encouraged to enroll in college and broaden her horizons, which is how Dollar Bill gets in the picture, and is how Kraft introduces annoying antagonist Lunatik, a guy who beats people with pipes and speaks in song lyrics. Where's that damn Elf with a Gun when you need him?
Lunatik's story gets concluded after Volume 3 of Essential Defenders ends, but I recall there's multiples Lunatiks, who are all part of some guy originally from another dimension, and they're connected somehow to the Nameless Ones from the Defenders' creation.
You can definitely feeling Kraft trying to follow in Gerber's footsteps, while maybe not emphasizing the futility of superheroics in a world of problems they can't solve quite as much.
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