The way I see it we're going to have to see a major change in the way gold and silver are perceived as money. Fiat is still currently heavily over-weighted as the ONLY real money available to the masses and until an event comes along to change that ideology we're in for more of the same. IMO the Euro is on death-watch and it's only when, not if, it goes down. Is that the mind-changing event? I suspect not, because it's already known about, I think it will most likely be a Black Swan event that no one expects to happen, but for gold to have it's day we have to see an event that makes people distrust fiat or more specifically, THEIR fiat.
To your point, Americans are probably the most naive people on the planet when it comes to holding PM's and with the USD's strength in the world I guess that's somewhat understandable. A strong dollar gives you more buying power. If I'm holding Rubles, I want to rationally hold more gold.