Why did a witch-hunting craze began in the mid-sixteenth century and wane by the mid seventeenth century?

If I remember this correctly, witch hunting caused by a culmination of many different factors. During the mid 16th century there were a lot of problems such as the little ice age, which brought a famine due to the weather negatively affecting the crops. Many European countries had been involved in the 30 Years War that had devastated so many people. Overall, conditions were bad and it left the people looking for someone to blame for their misery, a scapegoat. Women, mostly the elderly who were either unmarried or widowed, had been the easiest targets because the hadn’t had a man who could protect them (based on the time period and people’s views. I’m not sexist). It never really had an abrupt stop, but due to the rise of the scientific revolution, people slowly stopped believing in witches.

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