In the late Fifties and early Sixties there was Dave Van Ronk's "Great Folk Scare"
which found its way onto American radio and became a commodity. I don't know
much about what happened in England but I imagine there was some spillover.
Ewan started a lot of the folk clubs, I suppose, and that correlates to the coffee house craze in the States.

When performance becomes commodified it enters into the realm of show business and this is true of traditional performers at folk clubs and festivals. It involves an audience which must be appeased or pleased. Folk music, as I understand it, does not require this kind of environment. It can be among friends on a back porch or a mother singing a lullaby or a group of drunken men bawling out bawdy songs. It can be a schoolyard jingle taunting a teacher. It can be as Lomax's Dink who is pouring out a lament on the banks of a river while washing clothes.

I would guess that it was made to be heard by someone else other than the singer but I'm not sure this is always the case.

One thing that clarifies it for me is that it is accessible to many people. It's pretty rare to someone singing passages from Saint Matthew's Passion while hoeing weeds in the back yard.

It seems to be redolent of earlier times. Computerized folk music doesn't seem like it would work very well.

I don't think, however, that folkies have gone far away. They may not be going to folk clubs or festivals now since there is the myth of leisure time being available to most hard working people. But from where I sit, I see people playing and singing for their own enjoyment and folk songs are alive and well.