Happy hour fail

I get sitting at the bar when you are alone. Or even with one --two at the max--  friend. But to try to have a socially interactive happy hour with a group of seven friends all strung out in a line of bar stools is as conducive to conversation as a nineteenth century dinner party at Downton Abbey.  Just chatting with someone one person away becomes an exercise in acrobatics as you lean forward and back in the seat just to exchange a few sentences. Why? Why do people insist on staying at the bar?