Good question. From my own perspective I think it all started to come apart at the seems 2007ish. That's when I really started to see changes. We had record companies going bust, Vinyl drying up and the digital changeover, record shops going bust and promoters leaving the scene. This is all based on what I saw first hand in my town. I'm sure it differs from local to local.

The recession also kinda tipped it over the edge. It is insanely hard to get people out to a night nowadays unless you have the likes of Green Velvet or Dave Clarke etc etc///