There's the famous statement that there's two ways to make money: bundling and unbundling.

It makes it feel like all of the movement nets out to zero over time.

Really what it is is an oscillation in the ecosystem, from one polarity to the other.

An ecosystem gets too far in one direction, and so some enterprising people realize that, and see a temporary arbitrage to pull it back in the other direction.

They pull the curve back that way, ahead of the curve, but also pushed by it.

And it picks up steam, then it too gets too far to the other direction, loses momentum (this is the late stage period when everything feels static) and then starts pulling back in the original direction.

The people who are doing the bundling or unbundling are pulling the wave but also being pushed by it.

It's like the tidal forces of water on earth being pulled by the moon, always just a bit behind.