After reading the comments, I remembered the end of T.S. Eliot's "The Hollow Men
This is the way the world ends,
 This is the way the world ends,
 This is the way the world ends,
 Not with a bang, but a whimper."
 The hierarchy either cannot or will not come to grips with the church's problems. The result is that apathy is ever increasing. Eventually the church, its hierarchy, and its clergy just won't matter to the overwhelming majority of its (former) laity.