And, of course, it can't be because their food is crap and people are starting to care more and more about the quality of the food they're eating.
I'm no Adonis - heck, I'm not even in good shape - but my wife and I both have started focusing the last few years on eating better food, as in actual, least processed, organic when possible, natural food. As a result, certain foods and certain restaurants that we used to love now taste disgusting to us both.
We often discuss - most often when some requests that we go with them to a certain restaurant - whether or not it is simply that our tastes have changed or if the quality of their food has gone downhill. I think it's pretty much the former with an outside chance of being a combination of the two.
I used to love eating at Applebee's but, now, the only thing on their menu I actually enjoy eating is the Maple Butter Blondie.
Maybe, just maybe, if some of these restaurant chains started focusing more on improving the quality of their food - even having to charge more for it - then they might start gaining customers instead of losing them.