A dream journal in itself won’t increase your frequency of lucid dreams - but certainly should help with your dream recall, which is essential so that once you begin to have lucid dreams, you can remember them.
You say that your dream recall has been getting worse? At what point do you write in your dream journal, and how many dreams do you record? Do you only remember fragments? Are you using a dream recall technique (ie as advised in ETWOLD) in addition to your journal?
At this point I wouldn’t advise giving up your dream journal, as it’s one of the most effective techniques for remembering dreams. In addition, a dream journal is a great way to measure your progress with ld’s, where you’ve been and where you are now.
Also if you haven’t already, you might want to check out the Big Remembering Dreams Topic: [url]The BIG Remembering Dreams topic - Part III]