Do you think that's the reason? I think it's more that casual dining has replaced the pub in many respects. Also a bit of a lifestyle thing too, it's a social media event for some.
To be fair everything is related in some way. Self-sufficiency in terms of cooking has been poor in the UK and US (I can't comment on other Western countries), but I know that even in other countries where people eat out a lot, the basic cooking skills are emphasised, whereas here we tend to clap when someone can put together a full English breakfast or beans on toast.
So then we have lots of people who are reliant on restaurant meals/takeaways. I don't necessarily begrudge their decision and I'm happy for people to make their own choices, but we generally lack an emphasis on cooking skills. Heck, even the stuff people buy in shops consists of either ready meals or relatively easy-to-cook meals. I think we may be seeing more of a shift away though, which is encouraging, because of things like veganism etc.
