I go to a lot of folk clubs. I suppose a lot of the reasons why they aren't as popular as they once were, are pretty self evident.
Smoking isn't as popular as it was, and people are less tolerant of smokers. The breathalyser laws are more strictly enforced nowadays. if you are a non drinker there are no low cafeinne drinks available in pubs, rarely coffee available and never de-caff coffee. The pubs simply haven't kept up with public tastes which have changed a lot.
The real damage came of course during the 1970's, when the factionalism of traddy versus contemporary made some evenings an utter misery - you had to watch really great artists being abused and ignored by loudmouths of either faction who saw it as their duty to persecute music they didn't approve of.
It was a pity. I think it all started when Ewan MacColl gave that interview to NME when he said he didn't think Donovan was folk music and some of his followers took it on themselves to become cultural watchdogs over us all. Then it snowballed from there, with like I say, nasty stuff from both sides. Most of the contemporary songwriters ended up spending as much time as possible on the continent - where the money was better.
You can't blame anybody really though - Ewan was a great guy and I'm certainly not blaming him.
Nowadays so many people come to folk music without ever having been to a folk club. A great recording artist is not necessarilly a great folk club act.
Bottom line - it's a less tolerant age and the shabby chaos of the folk club just isn't for a lot of the health conscious, designer clad folks of today.