That being said, i think one part of the problem is that people nowadays are way too 'spoiled'. You have so many options,
so many choices, so many 'exciting' activities and stuff to happen or going on, that there is less 'need' or 'desire' to view
or correlate to F1.
Kids nowadays drink so many energy drinks that their attention span are similar to that of a goldfish. They can't even find themselves to find out or know there are music artists that stretch back longer then 5 years ago. As shocking as it is that people think Kanye West provides opportunity for the beatles
, as shocking as it is that people think Titanic was 'just a movie' and not an actual life event 
, this is the general public of today. Now you can turn on the tele or internet and watch RedBull air races, spectacle events, Monster trucks, you can download a movie full of action, you can download and play action games, role playing games, shooters, adventure games, all under a click of the mouse button.
People are spoiled, and people are getting harder to entertain.
What's got F1 to bring? inunderstandable rules, they look odd, they're don't sound exciting, a lot of tv comments are brain-drilling boring and annoying [ i can only enjoy sky sports, i can't stand BBC anymore ], they are in places you've never heard of, the races tend to be boring and last too long if you take into account the general public of today, and the drivers aren't able to be concidered the 'heroes' like they were before; F1 is - freak accidents aside - virtually without real danger, and indeed, a while ago, cars were something technically appealing and exciting, and fast cars were rare and dangerous to drive.
Today, almost any general car is able to hit 200+ kph and accelarate quite well, they corner well and are loaded with safety measurements; TC, ABS, ESP, Airbags, etc etc etc. So cars aren't concidered as exiting as they were before.
Back in the 70's, Ferrari's, Lambos, Porsches were almost 'widowmakers'. Today, the only thing that is abnormal to them is the fact they tend to catch on fire.
So what's so special about a 'racing car driver' ? That's the thought pattern of today, and that's the problem F1 faces.
Bernie realises he doesnt know how to 'fix' this issue so he 'hides' behind the fact that F1 today is not aimed at this public,
and he is, in a sense, even right.
At some point, the current fans either lose attention because they start thinking it's boring, too, or because they just don't wake up one day anymore because they reached terminal aging.
Worldcup football still has a sense of Nationalistic pride, which results in grabbing attention. And you can play FIFA from your lazy chair enjoying it with friends having lots of fun. F1 racing games are, well, seriously uninteresting, from an entertainment point of view. Sure, you can set it to 'arcade' but even then, it's not as fun as playing a game of soccer.
Trying to play professional F1 games is difficult and agrevating. It's boring. And F1 games of today are qualitatively seriously lacking. It's very underwhelming.
I remember getting excited on the F1 games returning officially to the 'branche'. Then i found out it was codemasters who was going to make it and boredome came and interest faded immediately. I remember codemaster games as brain-drillingly annoying and boring. It looks acceptable for today's standards, but that's about it.
I still feel there has not been better and more exciting F1 racing 'sims' like Geoff Crammonds Grand Prix (1 &) 2.
The world around F1 simply has changed, and F1 as a sport did not change accordingly. All that's changed was that Bernie commercialised F1 into the modern century, but the sport itself did not 'grow' accordingly. It's rediculous how bad F1's connection to the internet is. F1 on internet are purely fan-driven websites like this - a great website though - but there is no line between F1 and fans/reality.
