"This was happening right from the 50s and through. Some places it happened but not in others."
On the contrary - while some clubs ogged along, many maintained their own standards and no lonegr had to depend on outside help - the standard became particularly high in some and never fell below what was acceptible in many otherse which is why Alex Campbell developed his "good enough fro folk"   jibe to annoy 'the purists'
When those standards began to fall there were comments in the mags (still have many of them)
Folk Review published an article (from Fred Woods I think) which led to s long, long debate on everything people thought was going wrong with the clubs - I still have them
Shortly after that audiences declined, clubs began to close, labels and other outlets disappeared... the rest is history
That happened i London, Birmingham, Manchester and other cities and also in some of the smaller places we had dealings with - Pat noticed this as she was booking secretary for 'The Singers Club
It was around then that, when she tried to get Walter Pardon booked she was told, "We don't do that sort of thing, we're a folk club'

On line is fine - but it's impersonal and remote and basically uncontrolled and uncontrollable in both quality and content
The social side of the club scene was never too important to me but some people here and elsewhere have put it up sometimes as being as important as the music
Nevr get that from your I-pod
Jim