The trouble for me seems to be expectation, everyone has suddenly decided that they want a race full of drama and over taking yet my memory of formula one stretching back to the early 90's is it has always been a procession with one team/driver dominating most seasons. It must be the play station generation who's unrealistic expectations have been set by playing to much Forza!
That's partly it, in my view, but not the full story.
Yes, there is a generational change. Shorter attention spans, expectation of instant and constant action etc - that's just the way things move on. F1 hasn't adapted particularly well though. It's less accessible for the casual viewer's discretionary time and money, and adding a few extra races each year in increasingly bizarre locations isn't a successful strategy.
At the same time the technological and development battle that F1 has always had has been completely hamstrung. Restricted testing, restricted development and since the 1.6 era, restricted production. Look at McLaren - they responded by hiring the supposed next Adrian Newey from Red Bull and even if he is working magic the package is underpowered and even if Honda can develop their way out of the problem they're restricted in the amount of change they can make.
As much as I love it, F1 has very little appeal to the non-enthusiast, and the enthusiast audience's patience is fast being whittled down to just the hardcore.
If the casual viewer is paying £700 a year subscription or £400 to go to a race, these days they expect guaranteed excitement or drama.