If a friend brings drama to every hangout, eventually the drama is the hangout.

Some people carry a crisis around with them, and after a while the crisis is the only thing that happens when you meet. It usually is not manipulation. The drama has become how they connect, so each hangout gets spent on the newest installment. You go home tired and cannot quite explain why, since nothing happened to you.

Change the setting rather than the friend: do something with an activity in it, where talking is not the entire event. Ask one question about something else and hold it there. If every attempt slides back, seeing them less is fair and is not a verdict on them.