Every 'bubble' ends up in a new plateau and a higher low.

You are definitely right on that count. If we compare it to the duration of the stock market, we really havn't seen a true bear market. The uptrend is only noticeable on a full time-line 2009-present day but nobody zooms out that far to check it completely (also the log scale helps to put things in perspective.

PS: Hope your throat and voice get well soon :-)