Grant's tone is elegiac. There are fewer papers with fewer critics writing ever shorter and less demanding reviews. Music criticism has become increasingly cut off from larger cultural concerns. The invigorating tradition of composer-critics like Thomson and Deems Taylor has nearly vanished. But, as his own study documents, classical music has always been in trouble in America.
Problems just change from one generation to the next.
We may have fewer critics today, but we have more orchestras, opera companies and festivals. Recording and broadcasts have vastly enlarged the variety and availability of classical music. Perhaps all we need to reinvigorate criticism is a few books as good as this one.