Dennis,
I think a key question for church leaders then becomes "where to from here?"  As you pointed out, the approach by the "orthodox" (no diss intended here) will be to try to go back to some period of time remembered favorably (albeit not accurately perhaps?)  For many moderates, the choices have been limited: stay on but ignore the things that bother, leave, or make a run at creating change.  For the more progressive, the kind of striking out you mentioned, coupled with episcopal antics, led them to just leave.

I suspect that many, maybe most who left have actually just walked away from religion, period.  And just like the great salt lakes of the world, that evaporation has left behind ever saltier waters...  So even as the debates about who should captain the boat, versus man the oars continue with ever more fierceness, they miss the bigger question about the lake itself...