Depends on who you ask and their mesorah. Some will explain that it is a manifestation of the trembling one would experience of standing before a king. Some have attributed the movement to the R’ Akiva about whom it was said that when davening b’yachid he would start in one corner of a room and gradually kneel/bow/shake his way to the other side. There is a chasideshe vort that shuckeling is the result of the desire of the neshama inside of every yid to escape the physical body and reunite itself with its source. The least esoteric explanation I’ve ever heard (and the most intuitive) was that in the 13th and 14th century, the practice began as a result of a shortage of Printed sedurim meaning that daveners were forced to share a large printed scroll on the ground alternatively bending over to read and moving along so the next davener could read.
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