The falling of full node count is a simple result of people prefer to use off-chain web wallets because of their simplicity and convenience (Before they were using full nodes as their wallet). In fact 99% of my transactions nowadays happen between exchanges and web wallets, my node is never used to process transaction, but simply works as a dedicated mining/relay node
Any proof of this, or just based on your personal anecdote?
ill answer this question for johnyj
blockchain.info users increases while nodes drop
https://blockchain.info/charts/my-wallet-n-usersamount of transactions using blockchain increases
https://blockchain.info/charts/my-wallet-n-txyou will also note that while more people are preferring blockchain.info wallets.. the number of transactions is NOT on the same steep incline. which is a display that less people are doing transactions regularly, even with more people.
and that also proves my point. people are not spending so often so dont see much point being a full node if they are only spending once every few days