Kurgan, let me reply to that as one who lived through it.  In thrashing my way out of the abuse, among other things I shared the problem with a few people. Some of them I continue to think very highly of.  However, no one -- not conservative, liberal, priest, bishop, lay Catholic, or law enforcement -- responded in what we would consider a "correct" way today.  I can tell you the same thing about drunk driving when I was young.  We knew it was wrong, and we tried to limit it, but it was pervasive and kind of normal.  Thank God this generation is better than we were.
Some disagree,  but I give the bishops a pass until their 1985 commissioned report.  They rejected that report, lied about it, and the few who tried to run counter and be proactive ran straight into Vatican oversight. After 1985, they are quite literally guilty as sin. Any measured response given now, anything less than emphatic change, is inadequate. Before 1985? Sadly blinded to the horror by a complacent faith.