Capitalist journalism relies on sensationalism to keep people hooked so they’ll voluntarily keep coming back so the journalists can sell ads. The coverage hasn’t dropped in quantity as much as it’s not showing up on the front page as frequently anymore. As the public loses their sense of urgency, the journalists are moving other stories with a higher potential ROI to the forefront. The coverage of Ukraine has been moved to the back burner(very different from being abandoned altogether) so that awareness stays high. This allows the journalists to keep Ukraine stories periodically hitting the front page without burning their audience out so that readership stays high. This also helps with propaganda because many people will assume there are no meaningful updates between the stories they choose to promote more.

In the US, this is a cycle that repeats for almost everything that isn’t quickly resolved.