US media has given an answer to this question (sort of). Her campaign hoped that if she just let "Trump be Trump" that he would tank on his own. He started to tank and then righted the ship. They either didnt notice the righting of the ship or didnt think it would continue and Hillary continued softball type interviews and fundraising
She spent the whole summer fundraising so I would expect to see a shat tonne of advertisements in the last 60 days of the campaign.
I think Trump is making a mistake not campaigning more in the high $ media states like NY (especially NY), CA, etc. Even if he isnt going to win those states it will force Democrats to spend money which can then not be spent on OH, IL, IN etc. Everytime I see something he is doing a rally in the flyover states which yes he needs to win, but he also needs to try to force liberal money to be spent in liberal states where they havent had to in the last few elections.
The recent Ford announcement has very strange timing given the tone of the election. Its too bad, I like Ford (only us Automaker not to take bailout money) and we were looking at getting a Focus Sport 2 years from now.
But I think Hillary is on a potential upswing, she has started attacking Pepe the frog
The debates are going to be interesting and probably the highest rated in recent memory.