Broker memory alarm blocks publishes

RabbitMQ single-node broker (classic queues). At 15:40 producers start reporting blocked publishes and rising publish latency. The broker dashboard shows mem_used at 0.95 of vm_memory_high_watermark, the node's connection.blocked count spiking, and the orders queue depth at 2.1M and climbing (messages are not persistent; consumers were already lagging). The management UI shows the broker in a memory alarm state. Recent context: the main orders consumer group was scaled down from 12 to 3 workers in a cost-cutting change yesterday, and inbound order volume is at a normal daily peak. Triage and mitigate before the broker falls over.