"In the first instance" ... active in contemporary populations?

Question

On a site I happened to use the phrase "In the first instance" ...

(Not that this is relevant, but notice the many upvotes suggesting that presumably it reaches baseline understandability in a typical mixed-language, mixed-age, mixed-continent SE audience.)
I was utterly astounded that someone did not know the phrase,

Astonishingly, more people had not heard the phrase; my total astonishment / disgust with the Youth Of Today etc. continued when an an otherwise highly literate user figured it may be "regional" or such ...!

In particular: there was a (to me, completely bizarre) thought that it is more "descriptive than proscriptive" (or, something?)

My questions (here on the "Excellent English SE site") are

Could it be this ordinary phrase is falling out of popularity/meaning?  If so since when? (Kids of the 60s? 90s? 10s?) Is there any real way to know this? Does it appear in Harry Potter?

Is there anything to the "unfamiliar in action sentences" concept? (i.e., as I understand the commenter's comment, "ITFI X happened" versus "ITFI do X".)

user 66974 · Answer

Google books actually shows a constant decreasing usage of the expression in the first instance from which probably the fact that some users find it “unusual”.
Moreover, M-W suggests it is a formal expression:
in the first instance - idiom (formal):

before other events happen : as the first thing in a series of actions
You will be seen in the first instance by your own doctor who may then send you to a specialist.

For what it is worth, I am quite familiar with this expression and I don’t find it unusual.

"In the first instance" ... active in contemporary populations?

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