"Jim, it is your opinion that "moving away from the type of song that brought us together in the first place"
You do this all the time Dave - attributing documented incidents to "my opinion" just as some eejits pt down the well documented definition of folk song "my definition" (and failing to come up with their own - of course)
The decline of the scene was well debated - largely in magazines like Folk Revue
You can put forward all the silly excises you want, but it stands to sense that people who went out looking for folk song and didn't find it in the clubs, stopped looking
You have no evidence whatever that that is not the case so, whatever excuse you put forward remains 'your excuse' until you offer something substantial
Jim