I'm fifty years old, and have been playing RPGs since I was at school in the 1970s. In many ways this seems like one of the best periods ever for the RPG industry. More games, more companies, more of everything than previously. About the only thing which isn't there is the level of popularity D&D had at the height of it's Fad in the 1980s, and I don't think that's the sort of thing that happens twice very often. Are current companies publishing in different ways to then, certainly - the internet and the pdf have made that happen, as have rising print prices. That's hardly though an indication of decline, just change.
