Jimmy Swaggart getting sued in California in the 80's and the advent of the internet in the 90's did more to bury the Society than 1975, the Great Apostasy of 1980 and Ray Franz combined. I noticed the general decline with the new literature arrangment and eventual discarding of the entire notion of feeding people at assemblies. During assemblies, eating the food the Society provided was a big deal and kept the social bonds tight among Witnesses. Once the food was gone, the life seemed to drain out of those assemblies as people were forced to go out for lunch or bring cold and unappetizing food from home. I still have fond memories about the frozen pudding, Shasta cola, orange juice, the assembly burritos, and the hoagies. Now they are just a part of the ever-distant past related by the old-timers. They have gone the way of the seven-day conventions. The only life in the assemblies now are the groups that travel together and meet for dinner at the hotels. The lunch break is now a forced and awkward event, almost like they are letting you have a toilet break.
I too see the growing possibility of decline in numbers. As the "Baby-Boomer" generation in the US starts to die off, those numbers will become more apparent. While it is still a large enough organization to see them continuing well into this century, they will start to become something more fitting of a remnant - a rump organization. Another sign to look for would be them "simplifying" the assembly arrangement, possibly shrinking it to one event a year, and maybe even only meeting as a circuit. I wouldn't completely discount the possibility of some sort of eventful collapse in numbers and hours. Unfortunately, there will be plenty of die-hards in every family, and I can count on at least two in mine. What other life do they know? I can see my father packing up and moving to Patterson if they even hinted at it. I just share a sense of deep regret that this inevitable decline couldn't have happened a lot sooner and before my time. Perhaps this organization would have not had the detrimental effect on my life as it did.