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Some friendships exist for a purpose
Picture the only single person left in a friend group. The others are bound by parenthood and marriage, so a party tonight or a trip to Paris next month is out of reach when small kids need putting to bed. Wanting a friend who can go to parties and on vacations is a legitimate need, and saying so makes it easier to meet.
Not every friendship has to turn into something deep. Some exist because two people like hanging out and traveling together. If one moves or their life changes, the friendship can fade because its reason for existing is no longer being fulfilled.
It is fine to honor that ending or the distance that comes with it. What matters is that the purpose of the friendship is known to both people.
What do lasting friends have in common?
Robin Dunbar's research group has proposed seven features that predict how close two friends feel: speaking the same language or dialect, growing up in the same place, sharing educational and career paths, sharing hobbies and interests, holding similar worldviews, having a similar sense of humor, and sharing musical tastes. He calls them the seven pillars of friendship. The more of these two people share, the closer their friendship tends to be. The framework was laid out in a 2018 paper in Trends in Cognitive Sciences.
Why do friend groups shrink with age?
A 2013 meta-analysis in Psychological Bulletin by Cornelia Wrzus and colleagues combined studies of social networks across the life span. It found that social networks tend to be largest in young adulthood and shrink afterward. Life events such as marriage and parenthood were associated with changes in who people stay in contact with.