Even storyline wise everything is pointing toward Orton being de-pushed. Less and less confidence from the authority, now he is losing all these pre-EC matches?? Someone losing a singles match on SD to Cesaro (whoops, spoiler) is going to walk out of Mania as world champ? Can't picture it personally.
They could be building it up to make it look impossible for him to even walk out of EC as Champion, hence all the talk on Raw and Smackdown the last few weeks about how impossible it is for a Champion to retain in the EC and how Orton has never won an EC match. The more Orton loses, the more likely it is he'll walk out of EC as the Champion. Don't forget that the real feud between Batista and Orton (or Batista, Bryan, and Orton or Batista, Lesnar, and Orton) hasn't really started yet. It won't start until after EC. So, don't get bogged down in the minutiae of the EC build.
Also, I don't think Orton is going to walk out of Mania as Champion. I still think there's a third player that will be involved with the feud because I still think they want to find a way to have Daniel Bryan walk out of Mania as Champion. I'm just saying that it's not impossible, or unlikely, for Orton to walk out as Champion.
wk
