As a born and bred (until age 22) Nutmeger, I think a factor may be the decline of "Yankee" prejudice against the traditional Catholic ethnic groups. As a child, in the 50s and early 60s, my family and I were subject to regular instances of subtle and overt expressions of disdain. (The most glaring of the latter was a neighbor who invited everyone in the neighborhood except Irish-Americans to her Fourth of July celebration, when the local fife and drum corps played on her lawn. Since we lived next door, and the wall between our properties was low, we could still enjoy the concert but it was pretty clear who was being excluded.)

In this atmosphere, Catholics were forced to stay with their own group, unhappiness with the Church or no.

In the 60s, young people largely abandoned these attitudes and Catholics were considered the same as everyone else. Catholics thus became more willing to evaluate the Church on its own merits, which, institutionally, were not very strong.