zahavasdad: The minhag of having only one person say kaddish at a time was common – which led to rules as to who got which kaddish. It appears that the decline among Ashkenazim began in the mid 17th century (“Tach V’Tat”), and was largely done in by both the holocaust and the fact the East European Jews (from countries affected by Tach v’Tat) became the largest group of Ashkenazi whereas those form countries unaffected (in western Europe) declined demographically. The holocaust further undermined the custom. If you have all the mourners saying kaddish seperately, you might not have enough kaddishes in a all but the smallest shuls (even avoiding the days on which many people lost relatives at the same time).
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