People eat out more when the economy is better and they feel more secure in their jobs. So I guess that part is good.
I honestly don't see eating out as particularly evil. People gotta eat. If you want to overpay for someone else to cook your food, well at least you are paying that person's wages, and the money likely stays in the US. Vs., say, buying a new TV every year where you waste resources that otherwise would not be wasted, throw the old one in the landfill, and a bunch of the money goes off to China or wherever they actually made the TV.
It's not a good way to get to FI, but it's one of the less problematic consumerist activities I can think of (similar to using any other local services).
Edit: I also ran the numbers quickly. It looks like US per-capita food expenditures outside the home, as a percentage of per-capita income, increased from 6.1% in 1970 to 7.7% in 2012. So it's not that people are eating out dramatically more. Instead, it's that the amount spent for food at home has come down dramatically - 12.1% in 1970 to 7.8% in 2012. Thus, eating out is taking up a much larger share of total food expenditures.