It's a bit of an issue to ponder, but when we took on the two Patches a few years ago, there were several of us old grizzlys still digging away as we'd always done!
Going back even further, when we had the same Patch in 1987, there were about twenty plots in full swing with regular digging being the norm. Sundays were bedlam!
My old friend on the plot next to the patch we gave up last year, has just told me that he's giving up as well, so there are no more from our generation, and just a couple of holders who are a bit younger...
The rest of the plots are all now with the next generation, and they're just doing everything differently now, with some serious digging in raised beds, well-built fruit cages, or smaller 8 x 4 beds, or, perhaps, very little except tinker around the edges.
I have to confess to not missing the sort of anguish we used to feel when the sort of awful weather we've had recently stopped us getting down there to dig it all over, and it really is a thing of the past now!
Hmmmmm, I still miss the 'buzz' when it all works, though...:0(