And it can't be equated to the death of an individual or any component of the whole, because each subset of everything, when it ceases, will be succeeded by another element. With the end, the total obliteration of our universe, there will be no successor. This is what makes it tragic. The only alternative to this is a gradual decline, in which the universe has time to acknowledge and prepare for its demise. But this is ultimately tragic as well, as the universe begins decaying, knowing the imminence of its end.
Productivity slows and ceases.
Creativity has no further use. Eventually motion stops and there is nothing after that point. In any finite time stream, in fact, not only linear, but planar, spatial, etc. My goal someday is to cease to exist. Sure, I am afraid of it, but I am more afraid of existing forever, infinitely bounded.