There's a handful of things that "support" this claim;
1.) For the first time in history over 90% of the "end times" prophecies from around the world are coinciding with the same two-decade window of time; the Hopi, Egyptian, Mayan, Celtic and Hindu, etc. In fact, by Hindu tradition we've been in the time of "judgement" for over a decade already -- the Age of Kahli.
2.) New Age Commercialism has driven the hype when it comes to 2012 and to counter this, the TV evangelicals have been addressing it as a Satanic sort of thing and as such they've created a secondary fervor that's tied to religious ideas.
3.) We are headed towards some interesting Astronomical times and if I have my facts straight, this includes a SYZYGY or direct alignment of the planets which, Astrologically suggests an increased pull on our planet which some believe, will shift the magnetic poles in a rather sudden manner.
NO, this shift will not send things flying off the globe as some have dramatized in that it has happened in the past and everything is still fairly well intact. Legend suggests that this is an event that happens about every 150,000 years or some such.
However, it could result in certain seismic and climate based "shifts" that would allow the earth to depopulate itself of all the fleas that keep sucking the life out of here (humans). To a primitive or "uneducated" mind, this would be God punishing man for its sin and turning its back on all things pure and true. . . for the rest of us, it means that the laws of physics alongside cyclic occurrence are afoot and it's time to both, re-evaluate some of our thinking and too, spend much of the next millennia studying shit. We would likewise have the onus of having to help rebuild society and in so doing, help our fellow beings realize that "God" probably had nothing to do with it. . . any of the Gods for that matter. What may be afoot however, given how many cultural prophecies coincide time wise, is that the ancient "prophets" understood things intellectually but were not prepared as of yet, to be able to convey the details in a way that we, in modern times, could relate to or understand. Then again, most of you know that my personal focus is bridging things between the language of the past to how we see things now -- Wizards & Shaman were the rationalists of their time.
4.) HOLLYWOOD & Novelists had exploited this and other doomsday/end times scenarios making it big box office and more.
5.) Back to the Evangelicals; we have their own handful of soothsayers like Hal Lindsey that exploit every meteor and comet fart as being "Wormwood" (you'll find what that is in the book of Revelation -- bible). These jackasses have been predicting the rise of the Anti-Christ and the Rapture since the 1970s (the current batch, that is) and they've NEVER been right other than when using the same cyclic "hurling the headlines" methods known to working Mentalists (and there actually is a mathematical system or algorithm if you would, though it's a bit "dated" by today's standards).
This breed of "Christian" is one of the more dangerous because of how they manipulate so many via fear, confirming their dire prophecies by directing people to the Bible vs. factual data from reliable and proven sources (they tend to cherry pick references for validation just as they do scriptures to live by).
So this is the general list of ingredients that have made this a trend . . . a large social issue, but that also gives us the final nail to this box -- "social networking"
6) Social Media is so massive that a single thought can spread into an uncanny blaze within a few short hours. As we've seen on this forum, one or two ardent believers in something fantastic, can get on the web and pass on their own "virus" as it were. Winston's addiction to Youtube prophets is a great example and if he were to post all the videos by the questionable folks he drowns us with here, he will be effective at infecting others. . . this is the new way cults are being built by charismatic individuals and how old cult thinking is being revived. After all, you can say anything you want on the web and thus, sell any point of view you may have -- there's an app for that.