My personal experience of the church of the 1970s, here in New Hampton, IA, was one of emerging Vatican II thinkers seriously beginning to implicate laity in church councils and school boards, etc., versus hold-ons of top-down authoritarian types trying to preserve their traditional control. In the 1980s the 'fireworks' were a little less intense as adjustments came about.
The 'people who show up' are now more accommodated to Vatican II, at least from institutional perspectives, even if conflicted. Institutional vs. people faith conflicts continue, but Pope Francis is a big boost in the right direction of moving beyond the dead-end dualism of cleaved spirit/ matter thinking to a more holistic sense of Eucharist and the existential bonding of all life in one common ecology.
The gestation of a such a newly understood church continues to be painful and slow.