Its mostly because people want it to be dead. They say its dead in the hopes that people believe that it is, government in general does not like bitcoin for the obvious reason that it is anon and because they do not have control over it.
People don't. Governments do. I'm surprised they didn't do anything until now about Bitcoin pretty much anywhere in the world, and let Bitcoin become a semi-big thing. If they'll let us continue, in two years we will become a huge community and they won't be able to do anything about us anymore. People want to take control over themselves, not to be controlled by others.