No they're not. You need popularity for volume, but not the opposite.
Bitconnect was popular, and still is (pretty sure it will take time to be forgotten). Well were's your volume now? (& I know, quite ironically it's the one that pumped the most yesterday.. but it's still as worthless)

Also, volume means selling as much as buying. If the mass is selling to a few whales, then it's losing popularity. If a few whales are selling to the mass, or the mass to the mass, then it's popular.

But again, I don't think BTC lost popularity, I think it earned popularity, but ALTs earned even more popularity. BTC brought people to the crypto world, & thus to ALTs. Many have known about BTC for years, they just didn't know that there were other coins. Now they do, and they realize that it may be risky to put all their money in the same BTC basket.