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
That doesn't prove that use of SPV/web wallets is causing the decline in nodes. It only proves that more people are using blockchain.info than in the past, which you would expect if bitcoin is increasing in adoption. The number of blockchain.info wallet users is also not an accurate representation of the bitcoin economy.