Gtk2 being outdated may also be related to https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/5579
Found a hacky fix for those stuck with this problem. This doesn't 100% fix the problem, but comes pretty damn close on Linux Mint 19.2
Try "sudo apt-get install libgtk2.0-0:i386 libidn11:i386 libglu1-mesa:i386 libxmu6:i386" along with "sudo apt install libdbusmenu-gtk4:i386"
I did do some messing about with my repositories so I don't know if they're in the official repos...but they should be. Long story short it seems steam gives preference to the native libs on your system rather then those that come prepackaged with its runtime.
Also thanks darealshinji, I discovered this fix thanks to your suggestion within #5579
Issue transferred to https://github.com/ValveSoftware/steam-for-linux/issues/4428#issuecomment-698945526, closing as a duplicate.
Your system information
Please describe your issue in as much detail as possible:
Describe what you expected should happen and what did happen. Please link any large code pastes as a Github Gist
Steam seems to be using an out of date or incomplete version of the GTK2 framework which leads to theming being broken in about 99% of all themes I've tried since most modern themes make use of the "direction" attribute. When steam attempts to load this attribute it fails and reverts back to a fallback theme which often looks unpleasant.
This causes the following error:
"/usr/share/themes/deepen-dark/get-2.0/main.rc:1090: error: unexpected identifier 'direction', expected character '}'"
The main side effect of this is the broken menu theming found when you click on the steam system tray icon. Even if the rest of your system looks modern, that menu will look asif it were ripped strait from an OS from 2 decades ago
Steps for reproducing this issue:
e.g. the deepen dark theme I am using has it at line 1090