I think there are a lot of things that go into the idea that there is a new interest in "survival" and preparedness. But one of the things that should be considered is that we need to think about this stuff at all. Being able to do many of the things we not think of as preparedness or survival skills, we just things more people did and knew how to do in the past. I doubt you can find a single garden in the neighborhood in which DW and I bought a house. I doubt you can find anything else being raised for food within a mile of that house, except for maybe an occasional fish coming out of Long Island Sound. I also doubt you will find as many people now with have mason jars of preserved foods within twenty miles of there as you would have forty years ago, even though today there are a whole lot more people living there. And canned goods, I doubt you'll find as many in peoples homes too. A lot of this stuff is something that people with an interest in survival or preparedness are learning how to do, while a large percentage or prior generations just knew without a special interest.

There's other stuff that goes into it, like Katrina, shortages, etc., but a lack of the fundamental knowledge past generations had is also part of the equation.