From my point of view there are a couple of factors about general apathy which have not yet been mentioned.
There is not real stand out, figure head type players in the English game at the moment. Ones a which you’d expect the sporting general public to be aware of if they appeared on something like Question of Sport. In my time of watching RL there has been the like s of Schofield, Hanley, Offiah, Edwards, Davies, Robinson, Farrell, Scunthorpe, Burgess and to a lesser extent Sinfield. All of which would have been widely recognised on TV. With the lack of a current day player, playing in the UK, the game struggles to get national coverage.
There is virtually no prospect of getting the top Australian talent to come over due to the salary cap difference .
The game now is much more about power and strength rather than craft and flair. IMO this could be putting off some kids from taking the game up.
From a Hull FC point of view, I thing we as fans probably expect too much. We are perhaps no real different from other set s of fans, but fans in general are hyper critical even after wins.