Are these types of restaurants actually going away or are crappy chains just going under because better alternatives are a dime a dozen?

I think it depends where you are. Other than airports (with "fast casual" burgers), I don't eat at midrange/low-midrange chains but that isn't really an option everywhere.

To your point, I can't remember the last time I've eaten at a national chain outside of airports. I don't understand why people do this.

I live in a pretty sleepy farm type area, with a growing town in the middle. There are most of the main restaurant attractions. My wife and I are always amazed as we drive by the back to back Chili's, Outback and Texas RoadHouse., that are bustling at the seams, the parking lots are very often overflowing. We are amazed that there still are apparently plenty of people who can frequent these places.

So i can fully imagine that this article has it right, i just don't see it where i live.

So we are talking about cheap chains, not middle class places. These are just slightly glorified fast food. In Europe, apart from TGI Fridays, they were never a thing. And they were seen as just simply fast food. If they vanished, few people will mention. If these are middle class they are for well, "statistical middle", i.e. working poor.

Proper restaurants should be small businesses and family owned and grow their client base over generations, then they are pretty much bulletproof against all kinds of economic hardships.

> These are just slightly glorified fast food

A lot of them have started to directly compete against fast food. Applebees for instance offers a deal that's about the same price as a McDonalds meal.

> Americans are spending money at restaurants as much as ever — but really, they are buying food made by a restaurant and eating it somewhere else. Takeout and delivery apps are now ingrained habits. Drive-throughs are going strong. Random snacks and little treats are obsolescing breakfast, lunch and dinner, according to multiple analysts.

I admittedly lost the patience to sit there and wait instead of doing something else, having the food delivered, and immediately eating upon starting the process.

Eating at a restaurant seems like a subpar experience now compared to my own table.

It isn’t just me. Everyone from my grandparents to my friend groups is increasingly takeout and delivery driven.

I suppose it's because I grew up with it, but I greatly prefer food from these type of restaurants than from fancier more expensive restaurants.

You know that there's actual, indepently owned, restaurants that are way better than these thet aren't "more expensive", right?

I don't even know where the nearest applebees, chilis, etc is to me. I don't need to spend an arm & a leg to eat when dining out.

Don’t most of the chain restaurants serve essentially factory made food that is rehabilitated in the kitchen? Whereas I think most fancy restaurants I go to make the food from scratch. The latter seems better to me in theory, so I wonder if I value “made from scratch” more than you? Fancy restaurant food tends to have much more nuance and depth of flavor IME. Of course this doesn’t hold 100% of the time, I’ve certainly had bad food from expensive restaurants before.

The fancier ones seem to have worse food, worse service, and are far more expensive.

Yes, let's mention the middle class squeeze, but also conveniently not talk about America's tipping culture problem which would increase reluctance to sit down at a restaurant. Yes, let's completely ignore that.

Everyone obviously wants to pay extra so they can be constantly badgered and rushed out the door like cattle, and if you complain about any aspect of this, the white knights come out to drown you as they say it's your fault for not understanding the plight of the woe-is-me restaurant worker and there's absolutely nothing to be done other than shame you into not going out to eat.

I wonder why sit-down restaurants are declining.