Thank you very much for the thought out explanation, i think im beginning to grasp the concept. To summarize to make sure:

• accelerating mass causes gravitational waves
• two bodies orbiting eachother are also accelerating towards eachother by virtue of centripetal force.
• the energy to generate this wave is stripped directly from the kinetic energy of the system, causing the orbit to decay.

So the comparison to atoms releasing EM energy is a bit more apt then I initially thought. Thanks again!