I think it's a combination of factors. Certainly not the surplus market - I have a C&R and buy surplus guns but every other person I know personally looks at them as an interesting novelty. "Neat", but it has a funny looking stock, looks old, and has no scope mounts. They're not interested.
What I see a LOT of honestly, is just used market sales. There are so many guns out there in the market, that sell for so little sometimes (you'd be surprised the prices you see things sell for when people need money and are just selling stuff off. Lever action .30-30's are common around here and I've seen several sell for $100-125 in the last couple years), that the manufacturers have trouble competing.
I also think that they've gone too far with cutting corners. If you look at the "value" guns from the late 60's or 70's (Winchester 670 and Remington 788 for example), in my mind they're fine. Beech stock instead of walnut? Yeah that's ok. Matte blue instead of gloss? I can deal with that (heck I prefer it). But today? A rifle seems to come with as many plastic parts as metal ones. It's bad when a rifle coming with an ALUMINUM triggerguard is seen as a feature now rather than a flaw. We're also bombarded with plastic stocks (I've even seen them with trigger guard and swivel "studs" integrated, so they can mold the whole thing at once), and some don't even seem to think blueing (even matte) is necessary at all anymore. Just spray on some cheap finish that seems to rub off as easily as spray paint and call it a day. Iron sights? Most don't even think of including these anymore. Where once you at least had a backup set of sights if your scope totally failed in the field, now you're SOL.
Guess I'm just picky, but I want blue, wood, and no plastic when it comes to a rifle. Many aren't providing that anymore, which is why I llike a lot of sporterized guns. Yeah, from a collector's standpoint they've been "butchered", but man I like the feel of a nice, heavy, all steel and wood sporterized military rifle.
Sadly, it seems that "good" rifles like that being mass produced are becoming a thing of the past, so instead of everyone paying $700 for decent rifles, we're going to have tons a of people paying $250 for junk and if you want a "good" rifle you'll have to go custom for several thousand $$$'s.
I do like the appearance of the TC Icon though (save for the butterknife handle, but it seems that can be swapped out very easily. don't see any plastic parts. anyone know if there any?). I'm almost gonna have to lay down some cash for one of those just to support a manufacturer bucking the trend
.