I suspect that the state of "audiophilia" reflects the social and activity profiles of both individuals and society as a whole. When I first became interested in technology-enabled music reproduction, I was in my 20s and beginning to explore how a paycheck could translate into excitement (cars, motorcycles, skiing, travel, girls, and yes...hifi). It was cool to get the best performance out of everything by - uh - tweaking things and upgrading when opportunities arose. Much of my hifi experience back then involved like-minded friends; they didn't have to be into audio at the beginning, they just had to be excited about finding ways to make experiences better and more engaging. The truth is that while we certainly liked music, we really liked figuring out how to make it more engaging.
But as my friends and I got married, had kids, and found more demanding jobs, the need to work out solutions was largely replaced by a desire to just "get" a solution. We were too busy and often too tired. Yes, we were better able to buy our answers, but we also became more likely to experience them alone, rather than socially.
I think that many of us who frequent this site have followed this path. Some are finding new friends who've arrived at the same place and are beginning to add a social component to audio again, but others make their connections virtually (where, incidentally, they can be much less courteous than they'd need to be in person).
I see our larger society as heading the same way. Sure, twenty-somethings still socialize, but you don't see the same level of discovering and creating technological solutions among them. They usually just buy stuff. And in our increasingly economically-polarized world, it's mostly older people who can afford the best.
These are obviously broad generalizations.
