this may be manifest in local leaders being less authoritarian;

Having not been involved for ~ 15 years, I admit IDK, however:

(hypothesis)

Members are more likely to know when they're being emotionally mistreated/bullied - manipulated by leaders, less likely to be intimidated by 'Bp Asshat' or others.

If correct, I would think that leaders higher in the food chain will recognize this and 'self-correct'.

Have other posters had similar thoughts on this?

The church is currently running like an organization that the top leadership can’t control the guts. The church has all the trends and flavor of a Fortune 500 company. They hired corporate America to run this big organization and now they can’t control the monster they created. Now even the TBM members are seeing it and are broadcasting their confusion. There are so many mixed messages out of the church members don’t really know what it is anymore. What it is is incompetent.

  
  

The Peter Principle:

"In time, every post tends to be occupied by an employee who is incompetent to carry out its duties."

I think all of the course corrections in the last 10 years have left members feeling like their leaders don't really know where they are going.

Maybe someone from the Relief Society should ask for directions.

It may be the definition of younger (to me) generations.

My grandkids definitions of bullying ate far different from mine.

Same goes for "yelling" and "being mean".

They're much much more sensitive to how anyone treats them.