The state of healers is affecting everyone

[CrimsonGunner]

some things that might will explain why there aren't much healers:

1.support was never that much of a popular role,not many like to just spam heal's and buffs or like being the punching bag for people when they failed and die and follow the rule of "its the healer's fault".

2. dps was always more appealing to people and i think tanking was second.

3. sever problems with WHM, while scholar and ast problems were at least heard in previous expansions,the white mage never really got their job issues fixed which probably reduced their community (from what i read here)

and now after this expansion,all healer's aren't unique,they lost their identity and their kits are almost the same which caused a major uproar among the remaining healers that lost what they loved in their class while some issues still weren't fixed.

so you can't really expect to have a lot of healers if most left their jobs to play something else because of all that happen and now that all the healer's jobs are identical with boring game play it will only make matters worse and wont attract other's to be one.
so if this keeps up ,my guess is soon u will either have to fill a healer role out of necessity for your friend or be forced to find a willing soul to be healer so you can do trials as your dps/tank job.
i will still remain a main healer but again the healer community was already low and with all of that i wonder how many still remain.

p.s- if u want more details,there is a thread called "has anyone quit healing" in the healer forums that might shed some light and explain more accurately and in detail