the average (western) person does not matter in the gold market. You have just to look at Asian imports to see who is buying.
The average western person surely mattered after 2000. Why else would an ETF GLD (used mostly by westerners) coincide so directly with an increase in the gold price? They used to matter because they were accumulating gold. Now they can't, because they don't have enough income, and that is downward pressure on the gold price.