Not sure its a witch hunt per say but it's something they simple don't understand.  When people don't understand something life's first instinct is to avoid it and be careful around it until you understand it better.

Most economists that you see in print and on TV are NOT the ones you want to be listening to.  Listen to Wall Street.  They are just in the very beginning phases of buying.   Economist are book smart.  They can quote texts from economic policies from around the world.  Bitcoin isn't in a text.  It's not something they can rehash.  It's one of the reasons I was impressed with the Bank of America analyst who came out with an actual research report on Bitcoin.  It was out of the box.