We uncover a novel ergodic regime dubbed "fading ergodicity". This is a regime in which a quantum system is still ergodic, however, it also acts as a precursor of the ergodicity breaking phase transition. In other words, "fading" ergodicity is a synonym of the "fading" colors of the leafs that are just about to fall off the tree. We conjecture this regime to be a generic property of quantum systems approaching the ergodicity breaking phase transition, and therefore, one cannot make a system nonergodic without first making the ergodicity fade.