Hi chaps, I understand the frustration and concern shown here; as Mick says I think it's been a while coming but I believe there are appreciable and understandable reasons:
Firstly, we'd be remiss not to consider the effect of the pandemic, both positively and negatively. The lockdowns of 20/21 prevented us from doing so many things, but it did mean we could all spend more time here; which sure was a blessing. Simultaneously, we had the Lightning Strikes campaign that brought us all together for a common purpose with some friendly rivalry; even attracting some new members to the squad. I think what we saw during this period was a boom; we were seeing numbers those Tuesdays and Sundays frequently well into double figures.
But. What we're seeing now, is likely the pay off for that boom. Understandably, as the world has opened up and we've got our lives back to as close to normal as we can, people are catching up on all those other things we were forced to forgo, away from a computer screen and outside of the house! The P-38 campaign has for sure lost its momentum, with the cutting back to every other Sunday it's easier to miss out on if the RL planets do not align, which is a shame. Though, attendance had dropped before then anyway. DCS has been on the scene for about 14 years and rightly occupies its own slots during the week as we decided a number of years ago, but even that is quieter now than last year. Thursdays will be lucky to see 3-5 Dogz now.
Personally, since Christmas I've had some RL things to deal with that simply have to come first, so I can't always plan to be on. When the Lightning Campaign cut back to once a fortnight, I tried to keep the original routine up in order to attend some Co-ops and crucially catch up on the good ol' Dogz banter that I'd been missing. Even this is proving difficult as RL keeps insisting on getting in the way.
I'm sure there are other factors, other online temptations and I'm not entirely sure what we can do about it, but anyway. That's my tuppence. I'm not going anywhere, but I can't commit as often as I did, not right now.