I have a friend who's been married some 37 years... unhappily, she says. She's had a few affairs over the years, and they always end as you described; she's not going to leave her husband, that's her home and has family and all that jazz, so, notwithstanding the understanding they have from the get-go, eventually her paramours want more, don't get more - and it ends. She doesn't work things out with her husband, as it takes two to make the relationship work, and he's not working on it as well, lord knows why. According to her, there was even one lover she had for 5 years that was "perfect" for her, and she still didn't divorce her husband and move on. Her lover left instead, and doesn't want to know her anymore.
