Volatile equity markets, uncomfortably high levels of unemployment, and the uncertainty and pain arising from Europe’s sovereign debt crisis dominated the economic landscape in 2012. These macroeconomic issues created a seemingly gloomy horizon for debtors, but an attractive, promising landscape for those who benefit from an uptick in bankruptcy filings and a supply-laden, vibrant marketplace of troubled assets.

Yet 2012 came in like a lamb and went out just as meekly. For that entire year and the first half of 2013, there were relatively few chapter 11 bankruptcy filings, a corresponding paucity of troubled assets to be bought from bankruptcy cases and an auction market that was just as devoid of bidders and spirited bidding as it was of product to be had.

“It’s strange,” says Duane Morris bankruptcy partner Gerard S. Catalanello. “All the prevailing ingredients existed, but there was no real action.”

So what happened? Why didn’t creditors foreclose on more troubled borrowers and force them into bankruptcy? Why didn’t bargain-hunting, cash-rich investors flock to the auctions that went forward? Why did the “Bankruptcy Ball That Should Have Been” never occur? More significantly, what is likely to happen during the remainder of 2013 and beyond?

Three bankruptcy practitioners from Duane Morris and top insolvency specialists from the turnaround and advisory firms Alvarez & Marsal and CohnReznick recently pondered these and other restructuring riddles at State of Play in Bankruptcy and Insolvencies, Duane Morris’ 31st annual bankruptcy conference. Satisfying the inquiring minds were: from Duane Morris, New York-based partners Gerard S. Catalanello and William C. Heuer and Philadelphia-based partner Lawrence J. Kotler; Ray Dombrowski, Managing Director of Alvarez & Marsal; and Chad J. Shandler, CPA, a partner at CohnReznick. Rudolph J. Di Massa, Jr., chair of the Duane Morris Business Reorganization and Financial Restructuring, introduced the panel.

Following is an overview of bankruptcy trends and developments, factors that contributed to a sleepy few years and a look at the factors that may perpetuate—or change dramatically—the environment for bankruptcy filings and players.