You didn't waste any money on a study guide.
Part of it is that VHF/UHF ham radio just doesn't have the same utility or purpose as any form/type of telephone service. Radio is like a 'party-line' telephone with no 'ringers', you can almost always 'catch' someone, but maybe not any one particular person, sort of. There are also some things that you can't say/ask on ham radio, and then, somethings that I wouldn't discuss on a radio no matter if it would be 'legal' or not, you know?
Is ham radio 'dying'? I really doubt it. The first thing you have to think about is that the radio spectrum is a limited resource, there just isn't all that much to go around, sort of. If you had a million additional hams, where would you put'em? Relating the number of hams to the total population just isn't a very valid way of doing it, just too many limiting factors that can't be accounted for that way. Instead of using 'ham', try sticking 'knitters' into that sort of rating thing, it knitting a dying hobby? I kind'a doubt that too. Oh well.
Figuring out 'when' to listen is as important as figuring out 'where' to listen, maybe even more so.
- 'Doc