Movies like Zombieland are helping to keep them alive. The Rossi Ranch Hand/Mares Leg, is featured prominently there.
I had a Savage M99 myself, in .308 Winchester. I thought to myself, "This thing could stop a bear! And anything else in the Lower 48!"
That helped to sell it for me, and I have always liked the lines of a lever action. I was multi-tasking and didn't even know it.