#descending gradation

• Anteclimax — A figure of speech or rhetorical device consisting of a gradual decrease in the intensity of expressed ideas, feelings, or images, moving from grandiose, grave, or tense elements toward minor, common, or trivial details. Unlike anticlimax, which implies a sudden and often ironic collapse of tension, anteclimax represents a progressive, graded, and controlled decline of the discourse.
• Anticlimax — A figure of speech or narrative device consisting of a gradual or sudden drop in tension, idea intensity, or the importance of exposed facts, often by placing a trivial, comic, or disappointing element at the end of an ascending gradation; a disappointing or flat resolution to a tense situation that had promised a spectacular outcome.