It's all about perception, even if your favorite stocks keep dropping and dropping. And good companies too, the ones that rule the world. But that's the whole point. In a bear market, valuation and fundamentals and all that crap don't matter. People just indiscriminately sell whenever they get a good bounce, or even when they don't.
Short sellers ride their backs as the bids on stocks keep dropping.
Then when the bounces come, they're hellacious because the sellers have been temporarily exhausted and shorters have to cover, fueling trader buying. Of course, the market eventually gets to a point where all the panicking sellers just capitulate and people begin to look at what money they have available and then find that certain stocks are at attractive levels for once. Then the buy, and the process becomes anew. Bear markets tend to last much shorter than bull markets. At least, that's the way it's been for most of the twentieth century.