In my opinion this is due to people increasingly reappropriating the term 'bot' much in the way 'troll' has been. Troll originally had a clear meaning. It was people posting things exclusively to obtain incensed reaction. Now somehow 'troll' has increasingly been applied to anybody stating something somebody else strongly disagrees with.

And now the same thing is slowly happening to bot. It's not only people 'trolling', but it's being done by 'bots'. I believe this is largely a product of the increasing antagonism and radicalism in different 'sects' of our country today. By referring to people you disagree with as 'bots' and 'trolls' it works exactly like wartime propaganda - it dehumanizes and delegitimizes the 'enemy'.