General aviation is still alive and kicking, but the cost of entry has gotten alot higher. I talk to my old flight school based out of a small airfield back where I grew up and he says that he's busier then ever, but his clientel have gotten alot richer. Mercedes and BMW's sit parked outside his place where a decade ago you would have seen a Honda or a Toyota, and the 100 dollar hamburger guys who used to fly once a week are now only flying once a month. The old timers are getting phased out, and the new guys are in.

A competing flight school still offers affordable training, but the aircraft are still clunky old 152's that have trouble idling on the flight line wherein the other flight school have upgraded most of the fleet to diamond glass cockpit. They still keep a steam guage around and they have a 182, but for the most part it's all going uphill, and with that so is the cost of entry.