Now may be the time to admit that although I've read about wrestling ratings for ages, I still have no idea what the numbers actually mean.....

I think that maybe wrestling fans
are a 'dying breed', at least compared to 10 years ago. They've grown up and the fact that most agree the quality of wrestling has declined (although I'm not as disappointed with it as a lot of others are....) probably just meant people drifted away.
Maybe that's part of the WWE's masterplan: entice the current young generation with the PG stuff then as they grow older, gradually get more violent.

The cycle then repeats itself in 10 years time.....