BBC's relative importance would have declined and they would no longer have been the biggest cheeses in British broadcasting.

ECONOMIST: Digital follies

Mining has declined in importance in recent years with only coal and quarry stone mines remaining active.

FORBES: Swaziland

First, as back-office jobs (susceptible to automation) have declined in importance, front-office jobs (which require certain bundles of skills, especially social skills) have increased.

ECONOMIST: Economics focus

As membership-based federations such as trade unions have declined in importance, the political influence of professionally run advocacy groups such as the Sierra Club has grown and the poor do not belong to them.

ECONOMIST: American politics is both too rigid and too flexible

Mr. WU(ph) SHINBUO(ph) (Professor, Fudan University, Shanghai): The relative importance of this relationship has declined in the last several years, and secondly, I think the U.S. influence over China has declined in the past several years.

NPR: U.S. Image Suffers in a Changing China

He says export industries are doing "quite well", though the importance of sales to other euro countries has declined dramatically.

BBC: German truck maker MAN cuts shifts