The answer is not to give a monkeys about the old established clubs who'd rather die than admit fresh blood, work up a repertoire and make your name in the newer ones. They exist: we have one in North London a year old, and another one discussed above. Why are new ones opening? Because the old ones have gone stale. Which is sort of the conclusion you've come to.
Should the old ones sort themselves out? I think the question is rather CAN the old ones sort themselves out? If most of your members are in their sixties, you deserve to rank as old-time dancing for the previous generation of pensioners, you've become exactly what you accused Cecil Sharp House of being back in the 1980s. The pop world wanted to pick the brains of the folk scene, but all of you were too old to go with them. Where are your teaching courses in your local schools? Yours, not the EFDSS' - such as they are/
I look at Scotland, where the Commun na Clarsach took the decision to put one folk harp into every school - and did it. I'm not talking a folk harp here, but something which would lead the kids using it into the clubs. A basic accordion or summat.