Governments and councils are always bemoaning the fate of the poor high street shops, when by a country mile, the biggest culprits for trying to force them out of business are the government and councils themselves.
If they provided ample free parking, good, clean public toilets and didn't levy extortionate business rates, there would be fewer empty shop premises, more sales and government would probably actually take in more than they currently do overall.
Their idea of levelling the playing field is always by proposing levying extra tax to make things harder for one group rather than reducing tax to remove obstacles for the other group. It's the same principle as when they always tell you how many more hospitals and schools your extra taxes can pay for and never a word about how many more layers of pointless bureaucracy or willy-waving nuclear weapons.
That said, I agree with PPs that we need to adapt with the times and accept that the day of some kinds of businesses on the high street is now over. We don't mourn the loss of photo processing shops (although some have diversified and adapted to digital-related services); we accept that Blockbuster is history; we need to realise that, whilst cafes and hairdressers can still thrive, most people vastly prefer buying books, electronics and thousands of other standard non-urgent, non-trying-on items online.
Banks have been roundly criticised for closing branches and reducing opening times, but what percentage of transactions cannot now be done online or with just a cash machine? We have to accept that you can't always just keep the old one indefinitely when you move to something new.