Speaking from the land of the OP I must say that economic crisis does affect all hobbies, some more then others, amateur fishing increased for obvious reasons, it brings food. Amateur astronomy may or may not have decreased, one thing for sure I did not go to any star party or event, with the exception of the partial sun eclipse back in March, 500 yards from home, due to financial constraints, I see some of amateurs I know still posting on CN, FB or other foreign forums since our's (meaning Portuguese) went down 4 years ago when the crisis hit harder.
CN is like my club now, I do miss the live meetings though, and I owe all of my knowledge on amateur astronomy to the internet and some books I found on the internet.
I'm 58 years old and only started observing the skies at the age of 50, as the expression goes "curiosity killed the cat" that's what happened to me, I had seen plenty of Hubble pictures on the internet but it didn't mean much to me, well! yeah... professional telescopes, meaning that I never thought it was possible to actually observe anything other than the Moon, and please blame it on toy telescope I had tried a decade before, at a friend's house, where I had a hard time watching the Moon, it was shaking all over.
The first time I looked trough a slightly more serious telescope, a 114/900 newtonian reflector, I was hooked, it was amazing to observe Saturn, Jupiter, M42 and many other things that all of sudden unveil in front of me, it was magical, I can really see this "things" up close.
And because this first telescope was still shaky, flimsy mount, I took it back to the big shopping that sold it, and looked for one on the internet, and found one with a better mount. So yes I agree thoroughly that one can start this hobby with a moderate budget well below 1000, at least I did. Of course you will invest more if we're hooked
Visual is still a must for me, although I did consider astrophotography from very early on, and have been gathering some accessories for it, I feel kind of sad when I mount the camera and I'm not able to watch with my own eyes
Here I am "talking" to CN, on the other side of the Atlantic... this was hard or impossible 20 years ago, I see my wife's daughter speaking to her net friends in South Korea, Japan, etc. about "Manga" and the like. It's her interest and she is now studying multi-media arts. This new environment is forever changing social habits on the world population. The amount of information on www is a blessing for amateur astronomers like me, I would have not evolved my skills without you guys!
The friends of her brother sometimes ask him if I have my telescope set up because they like to come and take a peek at the moon or whatever I show to them, they will stay for a while and then they go about their business, usually bars where youngsters meet for mating season. Sometimes I wish I had their age simply because of quality eyesight.
Are amateurs leaving astronomy hobby?
I don't really have an answer for that, but I don't see it as an endangered species. I'm definitely a fruit of the Moon race, so maybe an event like a Mars expedition, a very large comet, or an asteroid impact can arouse a new interest in astronomy as a hobby, or not, one thing would help for sure removing light pollution and toy telescopes.
Clear skies to you all
bernardo