I think the surge of artisans definitely has attracted a good number of users, especially the newcomers. Not that artisans themselves are a bad thing (I love them) but people don't seem to be as publicly interested in keyboards lately.
A year or so ago moistgun's bolt-modded SSK would've been snatched the same day, but there it is unclaimed almost two weeks later.
It's also that a lot of the more active older users aren't as active atm, so maybe there's a disconnect with how frequent new users feel they should post. There aren't many threads on new boards, builds, hacks, etc.
I'm still holding on that it's a lull, however, if for optimism's sake.