I'd agree with you that folk music in folk clubs is in a poor state (although it's doing quite nicely at a couple of local singarounds). But the clubs themselves seem to be flourishing.

There's a fundamental contradiction here which is what gave rise to my Folk as Flotsam idea in the first place - i.e. Folk is now music of indetermiate genre sung by Folkies in Folk Clubs and other designated folk contexts. The majority of what happens in the name of Folk isn't Traditional - Folk Song is, therefore, something different to Traditional Song, being determined as it is by context rather than genre. The only reason I go to folk clubs is to hear & sing (in that order) traditional songs; if the Trad to Flotsam ratio is any less than 5-1 then I'd just as sooner not bother, which, in general, I no longer do. Life is, as they say, just too short!