There is no 'they' doing nefarious things in the gold market. By looking for 'them' you are wasting your time.
The reason gold is breaking downward is that the fundamentals, e.g. credit spreads, the TIPS yield, the yield curve, and the bond/dollar ratio, are bearish, more so than they have been in quite some time.
The good news is that these indicators are so stretched that there is likely to be a tradable rebound before long. I will use it to lighten my PM exposure and cycle the money into BMs.
Silver looks really bad here, and oil prices are starting to look like there will be another downleg soon.
LC