Steam client is not releasing system power settings

[Commodore Higginz]

I've had this crazy issue the last week with the latest version of Steam. Download and play something. Close the game and walk away from PC, come back 30 minutes later, no screensaver. Come back 2 hours later, system is still showing the desktop. I also noticed Steam didn't change my status to 'Away". Close Steam. Screensaver turns on in 10 minutes, monitors turn off after 30. System sleeps after 2 hours. I understand it is common for programs and video players to override system power setting to prevent screensavers and monitors shutting off while watching movies or running programs. Steam is no different. I can reopen Steam and all is well untill I download something and open it. I inquired to Steam Support and they offered no answer. I did a system trace in powercfg and found this in event viewer:

The application or service \Device\HarddiskVolume5\Program Files (x86)\Steam\Steam.exe has overridden user power management settings with a code of 0x3.

So, why is Steam not releasing the powercfg back to the system? Ideas?

System is Windows 7 Ultimate running latest updates.