I don't think it's as simple as that. I think there is been a plethora of issues.
Most recent - the cost of living. Pints are north of £5 which is just ridiculous.
Lockdown after affects - people have become more like hermits, myself included. Prior to the lockdowns I was out a lot, since then, not so much. Age may be thrown into the mixer too, but I just have less appetite to be in crowded places drinking.
Alcohol is being targeted by the media. The number of articles you see about the benefits of quitting alcohol etc. So you're getting a lot more of the younger generation just deciding that they don't want alcohol in their lives.
You cite a £5 pint as ridiculous, what are you comparing that too? There is no other type of establishment that has such a high dependence on alcohol consumption.
The supermarkets have almost wiped out off licenses. Looking in Tesco today, near enough every single beer was discounted or on club card offer. So that's not a fair comparison. They use booze as a loss leader, even the average scaffolders go to Tesco and buy booze and pizzas (you'd be surprised how often you see just that in a shopping trolley), lose on the booze, gain on the food.
After the smoking ban, huge numbers of pubs tried to make up losses by adding food service. The small back street "working mans" boozer couldn't compete and closed. And don't forget all those dedicated anti smokers who claimed that the only they didn't go to the pub was the smoke, come the ban, they still didn't go to the pub.
Since COVID pub food and drink prices ballooned to try and claw back their losses during lockdown and there's an entire couple of years of youngsters who didn't grow up on the rite of passage of under aged drinking, so they do frequent pubs because they're used to it, that'll probably catch up in 5 years or so.
The lockdown also contributed to the realisation that supermarket booze was cheaper and it was more comfortable to drink at home.
The minimum alcohol unit price in Scotland was designed to reduce alcohol consumption, particularly by cheap booze in supermarkets, which essentially encouraged heavy drinking, (put everyone on a level field). All it did really achieve was "booze cruises" from Scotland to England.
