Perhaps people leave the Church or, at least, participate less in its rituals because

1. It is the only way to send a desperate and urgent message up the hierarchy that they are blindly refusing to see the right course on many issues of great importance;

2. It is the only way to keep one's spiritual life alive after a long succession of demoralizing, infuriating, disturbing, and insulting experiences in parish and diocese;

3. People understand, better than many in the hierarchy, that the experience of Holy Communion, of which the Eucharist at Mass is only a part, can be discovered even more fully through living holily and bringing about God's Kingdom, as Jesus encouraged us to do, treating others as children of God all in our family;

4. It is a reaction of love toward good people we see the Church mistreating and speaking ill about;

5. It is a step in self-recovery from treatment by the Church in earlier life that was abusive, manipulative, controlling, and shaming.