It's the problem of the expectation of constant growth, with the idea that to keep making a good living out of a business is not enough, you have to grow it!
I don't believe it for a moment. There's nothing wrong with making the same reasonable turnover every year; what is wrong is that prices keep getting shoved north because of the bloody growth concept, and so you have to join in too. It becomes a chain reaction, and you then have to grow to stand still.
I used to enjoy the services of an excellent local photographic dealer near Glasgow. He was a rare outlet for Leica, Hasselblad and Nikon. One day I went to see him about some 'blad stuff I needed. He told me he'd lost them. (500 Series days.) I asked him why, and he said that he couldn't sell enough anymore because the big photo dealers in London and Leeds could sell retail at prices he couldn't buy from Hasselblad. That's crazy. If you are big, then make your profits and price cuts from economies of internal scale, efficiencies; you shouldn't have the manufacturers cutting prices for you. As Hasselblad were the only people making Hasselblads, there was no goddam reason to cut prices for the big guys! A single price would have been fair to all outets, made 'blad more money, and the folks buying would still have been buying.
The bottom line? Greed and Fear.
Rob C