In what scenarios can the blockchain size decrease for bitcoin?
It looks like this part of the code is what was adding all those UpdateTip messages:

https://github.com/bitcoin/bitcoin/blob/8fe30fb4d130532d4a0e4c9d143f03e1b85a749e/src/main.cpp#L2234

Essentially, bitcoind thinks another chain with more cumulative work exists on your 4-node network, though from the logs, it's hard to tell how much lower it goes. You'll have to run it for longer in order to find out.