I think that there has been an upswing in prepping interest and that it's due to two interrelated phenomenon. The first is that the webs of society, the things that work that make progress possible and lift our standard of living are becoming less resilient, that is, of late the gains are coming from a Just-In-Time type of efficiency, meaning that there is less slack in many systems. When a JIT supply chain hiccups the effects ripple downstream and because there is no slack in the system, the effects are amplified. People are seeing some of these effects and taking measures to insulate themselves as best they can.
The second effect is hardship created by tough economic times. The rise of home canning, coupon shopping, debt repayment, less consumption. Those who are forced into living with less really have no choice but their struggles become known by their social circles and those people have their eyes opened. I think some of these people migrate to prepping simply as a precautionary measure - stockpiling food and consumables makes them sleep a bit easier because they're buying cheap insurance against hardship created by loss of income. Many of these people, I think, are oblivious to the fragility of the systems upon which they depend. They believe that the monetary system will never reach hyperinflationary levels, they believe that there will always be a rock-steady natural gas distribution network ready to service them, etc.
The victory gardens of WWII and the consumption habits of the Depression-era folks were induced by external stimuli and were slow to change after the stimuli was ended. I think that external stimuli induced behavior is playing a big part in the rise of prepping. I'm not so sure that there is a wide-spread belief that civilization is right on the brink of the cliff though - prepping, in my mind, can mean preparing for doomsday and preparing your own safety net.
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