In a roundabout way consumers did cause it, but it was never going to be any other way given that lack of competition. Just look at how the tide has turned since AMD brought Ryzen to the party. Before that, not once did Intel ever need to worry they weren't going to sell CPUs. Anyone asking the question "will they actually buy this?" in an Intel meeting would have been laughed out the room. Consumers are VERY predictable at the end of the day.
Nvidia really don't have that much to worry about until AMD or Intel have a top end competitor, but they will have had a realisation of sorts with Turing, in so far as recognising you can't ask ANY price an expect consumers to pay, simply because they have no viable alternative.