For many decades, owning a McDonald's franchise meant a fairly sure way to gain back one's investment, but the past few years have been particularly tough on the biggest fast food chain in the world, while execs try their best to pull the company afloat - and insiders say there are reasons to believe the "turnaround plan" won't work.

For months on end, the fast food giant has reported its lowest numbers in over a decade, and things don't seem to be improving even after their new all-day breakfast program was launched this month - these days, McDonald's franchise owners are more than concerned over the future of the company.

According to Alternet.org, business analyst Mark Kalinowski recently conducted a survey directed at McDonald's franchise owners about the current state of the company in the middle of the crisis, as a seemingly desperate McDonald's throws more and more strategies to gain back its terrain.

As Coventry Telegraph reports, the McDonald's franchise owners were quite gloomy when answering the survey, with one of them saying the company was "in the throes of a deep depression," saying the fast food chain model is growing out of fashion for other fast casual options such as Chipotle or Shake Shack while McDonald's fades into oblivion.

"The CEO is sowing the seeds of our demise," wrote one McDonald's franchise owner, according to The Mirror, speaking about the current turnaround plan that hasn't been doing much in the way of increasing the company's numbers, while another said that the system McDonald's employs as a chain "may be facing its final days."

In all, it does seem like, out of all fast food chains including major competitor Burger King and Taco Bell, McDonald's is the one having the most trouble to adapt to the new way things are being done in the food service industry, struggling to gain millennials back into their stores.

From the picture McDonald's franchise owners are painting, it would seem as if the most iconic fast food chain in the world may be seeing its end soon.