Is my tulip poplar dying or just stressed?

Yellow leaves shedding from the interior of the canopy in late July and August is a drought reflex Purdue documents nearly every year — the tree refoliates normally the following spring and does not need to come down. Real decline reads differently: thinning that starts at the very top and works downward, twigs at the crown edge that never releaf, and a sticky honeydew film from tuliptree scale or aphids coating the deck and cars below with black sooty mold.