Winter; I completely agree with everything you said.
Rather than quote so many different people, I'll just add my thoughts.
I think that young men (and I hesitantly identify as such) are looking for something deeper as others have said, and not finding it, or finding resistance to it, are leaving. And that is what is preventing the change we're looking for; they keep leaving. There is a large percentage of Masons who would like to see the kind of change we're talking about, but they're not sticking around long enough to build up the numbers needed to affect the votes. The actual number of men who want to see this kind of change, I believe are in the majority, but if they don't stick around and vote, nothing will ever change.
The fact of the matter is, I think things ARE slowly changing. Those resistant to change continue to get older and we see fewer of them in lodge every year (and to be fair, I will miss their fellowship and experience). Of the younger men being initiated, at least a few of them stick around, and so the needle is starting to move. These numbers, in addition to the tenacity of the younger men is causing changes that we're starting to see. Every year there are more and more TO, European Concept, Strict Observance, and Research Lodges. More and more lodges are having discussions and Masonic education. More and more votes are going to Grand Lodge being put forth by younger Masons. They're not very successful at this point, but you can see the push. We haven't gotten to a tipping point, yet, where we are providing enough to satisfy when our candidates are seeking in large numbers, but we're moving in that direction.
What I'll be very interested to see is, when we reach that point some day, will our missing brothers return in droves? If so, can you imagine what that would look like? We have initiated tons of young men who have left. If they all suddenly returned in a short period of time, that would really be something to see.
Many young Masons are in favor of higher dues. Imagine the changes we would see if every lodge doubled the number of men on their roles and quadrupled their dues. Think about your own lodge and what you could do with 8x time revenue.
I'm excited to see what the future brings.
In closing, is Freemasonry dying? I guess that depends on what your definition of Freemasonry is. One could easily argue that it's finally coming back to life.