Wingspinner- I learned a few things from your post. I knew GA had reduced, but wasn't aware of the details. Of course, one could say that the FAA wanted to see GA go down due to the fact that safety in GA hasn't been nearly as good as in commercial aviation. Perhaps there is some nanny state thinking going on, or maybe there's an attitude that flight is a rich man's activity in general?
I still going to stick with my belief that the FAA couldn't care less about our hobby. As long as we aren't interfering with full scale planes, I can't see them going to a lot of trouble to hassle us.