This is not a minor issue, but it is less widespread.
There was a huge chunk of the generation that grew up shortly before Vatican 2, especially nuns but also priests and laity. After V2 they were influenced by genuine trends of spiritual renewal, but also by secular trends that urged Christians to persuade their church to follow the secular trends.
There were other trends and movements, some good like ecumenism, Cursillo, Charismatic prayer, Bible study, etc mixed in with the bad, at the time. Many seminaries allowed doctrinal content to decline, some religious orders disintegrated spiritually.
In the US the “renewed” peeps evaluated the Magisterium by the standard of the secular media, which now rules them. The fact that V2 called for some needed changes fueled demand to push through other agendas “in the Spirit of V2”. They networked and took control of catechetics in many places, fading in recent years.
Now you have the angry generation (like my 70 year old cousin) and the brainwashed generation (like my 40 year old cousin, who never learned doctrinal content). The bishops dealt with lots of bad and good trends, they also had traditionalists who, seeing bad stuff “in the Spirit of V2”, rejected V2 itself.
Under St. JP II, different men entered the seminaries, which themselves reasserted doctrine. Some aspects of V2, which were ignored, are being implemented in parishes. Some aspects of the “spirit of V2” are being phased out. In my diocese, there are few really liberal parishes left, with liberal pastors near retirement. My 70 year old lay cousin actively works for liberal religious causes. My 40 year old cousin is inactive Catholic. Her children won’t be Catholic at all.
In most cities, if a liberal parish turns around, there are other liberal parishes or campus ministries people flee to. As time goes on, there are fewer liberal pastors and less money to support Catholic places. There are fewer people under a certain age who are liberal, and also willing to work for “the cause”. If the pastor talks about prolife, they won’t bother fleeing somewhere else, they simply sleep in on Sunday. But my 70 year old cousin will be busy, criticizing our new bishop about same sex marriage.
Our new bishop can’t do much about the liberal pastors near retirement. But he spends a lot of time with the seminarians and younger priests, who all seem conservative. He works a lot with home schoolers, prolifers, and similar groups. You can see the trend here.
