Is there really a huge gap between (stable) expert and (stable) candidate master?

#	User	Rating
1	ecnerwala	3648
2	Benq	3580
3	orzdevinwang	3570
4	cnnfls_csy	3569
5	Geothermal	3568
6	tourist	3565
7	maroonrk	3530
8	Radewoosh	3520
9	Um_nik	3481
10	jiangly	3467

#	User	Contrib.
1	maomao90	174
2	adamant	164
2	awoo	164
4	TheScrasse	160
5	nor	159
6	maroonrk	156
7	SecondThread	150
8	-is-this-fft-	149
9	pajenegod	145
10	BledDest	144

I have participated over 60 contests. I became expert in my 12th contest and reach the rating 1800 at 17th. I feel very confident and my goal then is master and grandmaster.

However, I find it extremely difficult to move further. I have stayed between 1747 and 1965 in the nearly 30 contests, every time I reach 1900, my next contest will more likely to have negative rating and make me drop into expert again. My title keeps expert -> candidate master -> expert -> candidate master -> expert ....

I would like to know if any people have the same feeling as me, like very hard to reach purple or very hard to stay purple. I heard from another saying: "hard work makes you expert, but if you want master, you need talent. " I don't know if the saying is true.

----- UPD: Sorry for the title change. The gap between expert and candidate master is actually only 1. I previously want to ask if a stable expert is very hard to become a stable candidate master. Reaching candidate master by chance and drop to expert next time does not count for stable candidate master.