The news cycle advertises Bitcoin as it pumps, raising awareness of the masses, which results in people buying in before a dump. In the aftermath, new hodlers are made, but for every hodler, there are probably more people who sold and got burned, growing sour to Bitcoin for a number of halvings.
In the currently bearish market, the news is mostly silent. People should probably be buying, but Bitcoin is out of sight and mind.
The volatility of Bitcoin price mixed with the news cycle is an inadvertent and unfortunate attack on Bitcoin.
Maybe having a more gradual adoption-curve is a feature, not a bug. Gives the ecosystem time to mature. I just wish precoiners would ask us about Bitcoin during bear-markets.