Thank you for that. I would see the decline as a combination of things, including the flooding of amateur content on social media that previously had a more obscure domain for "must see" footage, a lack of focus in the media on UFO's as people get their fill of the paranormal and weird from streaming services, and general trends in ufology as the article suggests. After the release of "Fire in the Sky" in 1993 and the media attention around the Phoenix lights, ufology likely spiked due to pop culture.
That said, up until 2014 it was steadily rising. I think all it really takes is a major news story once in a while to bump interest again. The Nimitz videos and the Navy confirmation may just be that for now.
As for the recent spike, maybe people just loving creating Fake News - something that seems to permeate our culture recently
