It was part of Reagan's cost cutting initiatives. It was brought back by public demand; it wasn't wide spread but very vocal. This was a money making project from the beginning so eliminating it never did make much sense. I suspect they thought the demand existed only because the product did.
Knowing our government there probably was Mint sets produced those years and they are still looking for them.
They did make the souvenir mint sets in those years and many collectors are looking for them. These sets weren't made to the same high standards as the regular mint sets but they did seek out superior examples so they are much better on average than typical coins. These sets are the source for several of the coins in the finest condition. There were 10,000 of the '82-P, 15,000 of the '83-P, and 20,000 of each of the Denver issues reported to have been made. These numbers are probably higher than the other dates of the era but production numbers are either hard to find or hard to believe. The lowest figures I've seen are 400 for the '72-P. There are rumors of '71 souvenir sets but I've never seen one.
