To add what
johng stated
The lights are causing a high current load, which causes the switch to get hot (
if instead this was a fuse, it would have blown with higher amp draw)
Over time, that causes the switch to degrade, such as the thin copper strips you see of the contacts in the switch
Add switch over all that time with that current load those contacts due to heat began to bend a bit causing even
more resistance in switch, which you can see in the photo Johng supplied
![IMGP1760.jpg IMGP1760.jpg](https://www.corvetteclub.org.uk/data/attachments/24/24296-3a8dd65c417931dda61937c38dbde036.jpg)
Really, the switch over all those years functioned way longer than if should with that current load heat
You could just replace the switch, and it would last a long time, or maybe take it apart and try and clean it up, ( but if new switch is cheap in cost, better way to solve this) or
What the guys are saying is if adding relays to the lighting circuit would take away that high current load on switch
This is because now all that switch does is controls the coil in the relay, which has almost no current load
and the contacts of relay than handles the current load of the lights