Yes, there was a lot of FUD leading up to November 2012. Pretty much like now %-wise, and probably like spring of 2020 will be. Now that we are into the next reward era (as of seconds ago), we'll see what happens.
The advantage now is that we're nearing the end of the asic order of magnitude increases like there have been for nearly 4 years and will be back to growth in line with user growth and regular silicon improvements in the next year or so which should help to let more people mine and decrease consolidation.
A question to the older members here would be to ask if there was this much worry and fud in the last halving? Surely back then miners where in the same situation that if we never got a price rise then it would become unprofitable to continue to mine and miners would drop out left right and centre. yet we are at another block halving and miners are still doing their thing.