I don't think I've seen a hitchhiker in the last 10 years when on the way by car with my family or so.

But, interestingly, you do see the occassional hitchhiker when you're hitchhiking yourself. That probably has to do with a hitchhiking person typically being in a hitchhiking spot about when it's a good time to hitchhike, so they are there just at the correct time to meet each other.

But also: It's kind of good that we cannot see each other. After all, that means we've gotten rides and are in some cars going somewhere :)

I just started teaching hitchhiking to my child. It turned out to be a surprisingly good way of teaching what's bad about people and what's good about people at the same time! Telling of why they cannot hitchhike alone yet, and how I am cautious (but not too precisely, because I don't want to give them the feeling of "I can handle it!" for a lot of years still.

I feel, the society is at the moment so emotionless and cold that it is unlikely to have other ways to go than up, in the longer term. I think how seldom we see hitchhikers is partially caused by that coldness as well. People don't feel like being a part of the same society with others, so the whole concept of hitchhiking might feel more foreign to them than it otherwise would.