The internet. Much more information and the ability by people to share ideas.

This. 100%. its so obvious i'm not sure how you didn't mention it.

anytime pre 2000 if you believe in anything not "mainstream" you had the pain staking task of finding a book that supported your idea. Said book wasn't sold anywhere near you because it's not "mainstream" enough to be sold over the counter of your average book store, so you would have to call various book sellers or libraries in order to track down said book then you had the task of going to said place to finally get said book.

All of this for ONE book that may or may not have the information you are looking for in it, and oh ya you have to read the whole thing to find out that answer.

Now-a-days one simple google of "how did jfk die" or any other questions for matter, click 10 or so links, and you pretty much have all the info you need that can lead you down the magical rabbit-hole.

before 2000 this idea of instantaneous knowledge was literally UNTHINKABLE.

Why do you believe there is a major shift and increase of conspiracy believers?

that makes no sense. try 'conspiracy analyzers'

Prior to recent time periods, the average person only had access to a very limited amount of information, and the information that the typical person did have access to was pre-packaged and used to sell something to them(be it ad time on TV or radio, or whatever else) or was simply information given to them in public schools which are inherently government-run institutions here in the US.

The average person had no access to repositories of knowledge like Wikileaks or sites like it. There was no avenue of information sharing that was available to the masses without broadcasting licenses/syndication requirements/advertisers dictating what you could or could not broadcast. So today with the advent of the internet, people in general are for the first time having information given to them that previously would have been wholly unavailable to everyone except the most diehard researchers with lots of free time and money to spend their days reading through physical archives in Washington or somewhere else.

The realities become clear with access to knowledge and information, which is a new phenomena that came with the internet and its development. The 'old media'(TV and radio) are avenues of information being given to the public, which is a crucial mechanism of governing people, which means that people with all the money and power(the greatest means, motive, and opportunity) would try and succeed in controlling them. These people kept the 'real information' about the realities of the world quiet because, surprise surprise, they were largely involved sometimes but otherwise generally invested in the established social order as it is - so they would only air 'conspiratainment' like 'Hiker sees bigfoot, is bigfoot real', or 'aliens stole my baby' or something easily discredited but imaginative and entertaining for people who were up listening to the radio late at night.

The internet and the rise of real information getting distributed to the general public has kind of left the above enterprises reeling, so to discredit the new wave of journalism/researching/information distribution that would have a negative impact on the establishment that they depend on, they just lump it in with the previous definition of "conspiracy theorist" like the one you describe, in attempts to turn anything other than the official social narrative controlled and distributed by them into laughable tripe comparable to bigfoot stories. It's a tactic in an information war.

This information always existed, but there was no way for it to reach the massive audience that it has in the new age which is defined by the internet. We now have public forums available to anyone & everyone from any corner of the US or the world for social activism and sharing knowledge/analyzing the real state of our national and international 'system' - you don't have to take a bus to a march in DC anymore to meet or talk to other activists, or be in a specific cafe/bar/town square at a specific time - whereas previously the conversation and the context for/of the conversation was defined by a mass media system controlled by a handful of wealthy individuals / powerful corporations who had, and still have, a vested interest in keeping the general pubic stupid and distracted by things like pop culture or bigfoot, or false fights like "republican vs. democrats" - keeping everyone in meaningless struggles for life in between their days of working for you and propping up your system is a great way to govern. That's how it was, it isn't like that anymore, so there's the answer to your question.

You may want to look into UFOs instead of just dismissing them. If you did, you'd be able to write self-posts deserving of more attention.

Would be very helpful to have some links in here. I'm genuinely curious.

As you said, the abundance of proof. The state can't lock down the information stream like it used to. I fear they will make the transition from soft power to hard power. More than one way to run a business.

Abundance of proof leads to more people realizing how the world works vs. what they are told growing up. This in turn gives us more people questioning the way things work, the way things are, and how and why.

I believe you've laid it out well enough, but to answer your question. I'd say that it should be considered a "Paradigm shift" in the way society views Big Government and vice-versa.

With the surfacing of evidence exposing Government corruption, relating to everything from Black Ops, illegal wars, banking/financial scandals and mass surveillance it should come of no surprise that this shift has taken place and will only continue to grow- Something TPTB most likely take into account.

The question is not necessarily why it's happening anymore, but how to be prepared, mentally and physically, for whatever may be the end result.

I think that people can see something is going on. UFOs have been taboo in the USA(to believe is to risk being thought of as crazy). The international banker conspiracy has truth going for it. Since our economy is starting to tank people are looking for answers that will bring change(you can't kill aliens, even if you believe they exist, but you can jail bankers). I believe in both. I don't know exactly their relationship to one another. Like my friend who I convinced that UFOs have been to earth says, "How does that effect my life". I can't argue it does, except on a philosophical level.

I agree with you regarding the abundance of proof, but you lost me when comparing it to a subject you very eloquently outlined you know very little about. UFOs and political/global conspiracies are not one in the same, and have co-existed for countless decades. To paint a timeline where one progressed into another is just fallacy. Other than that, I agree with you.

Back in the (early) 90s, all your information came from a few conspiracy magazines, the alternative section in a bookstore and bookstores like at the Theosophical Society. You could get online but most of what was there was old text files that used to be shared round BBSs, but it was all pretty scant, although very interesting.

The amount of material and interest now is phenomenal. I often wonder whether this viewpoint is close to being considered "mainstream".

We are in the age of knowing, people can intuitively sense that there's "something more" going on.