Here's my take. The traditional big buyers China, Japan and other govs have stopped buying. That's either for political reasons or they're legitimately worried that "last man standing" dollar is in trouble too. As you point out, retail investors love the yield, especially as the stock market crashes. But, if you hold the bonds for any length of time, your 5% gets eaten up by inflation. Also, if you hold bonds as collateral, the value drops as yield rises. You can decide to hold to term, like a two year maybe. But then the govt. is paying you back with debased dollars. Demand will never completely disappear, since lots of funds have a certain allocation to fixed income.