Are there really true "Ages" in comics? Or are the Ages really more demarcations between evolutionary steps, as opposed to subcultural "Ages"?

What I am trying to say is, the Golden Age had plenty of violence, casual racism, sexual art, and a whole lot more... but since the audience was kids and then servicemen the genre pandered to its target. The same way the modern age of comics with its endless porn star poses and generic overwritten plotlines is catering to the modern audience, often dismissed as "fanboys".

So if the same audience had remained throughout, ageing and being replaced by the equivalent aged fans each generation, would comics have had Ages at all? Would comics have died out?

I used to take the answers to this totally for granted but now I wonders, I does.