You could count the "soft rock" acts of the 1970s for that decade. Bread never recorded again and Tony Orlando & Dawn never had a hit outside of it. The Captain and Tennille neatly ended their Top 40 hit career on Valentine's Day week of 1980 when "Do That To Me One More Time" hit #1, and their only other chart singles that followed both came that year, and neither made it any higher than #55. (Interestingly, Paul McCartney & Wings would qualify if they hadn't had a #1 hit with "Coming Up" in 1980, a song that was recorded in 1979.)
(On further research, I noticed both Wings and Bread would be disqualified because they had personnel changes during their recording careers.)
The only ones I could come up with of any lasting fame for the 1980s were bands like Wham! or Men at Work, who only had two or three hit albums. However, Men at Work totally fit this category because group member Greg Ham died in 2012, ensuring that their hitmaking lineup will never record again. The Police almost qualify seeing that their first hits came in 1979, but they have since reunited and made a DVD, so that, I guess, would count as a "recording."
You could nominate Nirvana for the 1990s due to Kurt Cobain's 1994 suicide, but the band has released recordings from 1989 when Dave Grohl wasn't a member.
So, the only bands that qualify for the Beatles' single-decade-only recording mantle is Men at Work, and Wham!, if they never reunite and record again. Contemplate THAT on this Monday.