I was interviewing Eric Andersen and we were talking about the emergence of singer-songwriters during the folk revival (although they were not called singer-songwriters at the time.)   Eric's response was that they needed to write new songs that spoke to the issues and emotions that they were facing - the same reasons that spawned what would become "traditional" music in the first place.

For all the hardcore "traddies" out there, you can probably trace the first sparks for you love of trad back to a time in your youth when you discovered something in the music that touched you.   You cannot expect subsequent generations to have the same reasons as you did - nor can you expect the same modes of transmission.