I think the reason you are seeing a current reaction is due to the up and coming hardfork issue, and the difficulty and stress it is creating. There has been little clear communication or even evaluation on how it will impact the community. Many are stressed and having little visibility during this time, is challenging for those who have been working on it, trying to describe it and ending up getting the angst of the community.
Of course they would be upset with those who seem disengaged and uninterested.
Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I followed quite a bit of those discussions closely and they are some of the same issues we've been discussing around here for many months (rewards curve changes, downvote pool, etc) without ever coming to a clear consensus on them. At some point it's useless to continue debating the same things over and over again. People will be upset no matter which direction things go, but I agree, I could definitely be providing more value to the community during this time to explain things and help people understand the changes coming.