Is traditional tin whistle playing under threat?

Blogger Gordon suggests that

The living tradition of whistle playing is being gradually squeezed out of existence by a pincer action from music colleges and American Irish traditional musicians.

It's an interesting post, and certainly isn't a standard Mudcat-style 'I don't like the way the tradition is developing, therefore it's not traditional' argument.

I think he's being over-pessimistic, and I'm going to ponder some more before actually responding on Gordon's blog; however I thought I'd link it here in the interim.