Attendance at Mass is off... Why?

One word:  Ordinary.
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It hit me last Sunday.  A great deal of Catholic worship has just become too ordinary - and that includes the Ordinary Form of Mass - as well as too much trying to be ordinary; like the up with people music ministries, entertainment tonight adult faith formation, rock the youth ministry; boring, mind numbing homilies, running the parish like a business, and so on.  Take fundraiser homilies for instance - or rather stewardship drives - not unlike public television donor week pitches.  Why do priests twist the scripture of the Sunday to suit the fund raising appeal?  You need money - ask for it straight up - don't put on a show or turn the scripture into some banal commercial.   
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Culture clash?
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The Archdiocese of Cincinnati is calling the drop off in attendance a culture clash - because they are losing young people.  I think there is less to it than that.  When church people play down to people - young or old - they get bored.  When they go too far in the other direction, it can all become too cerebral and more boring still.  And if church people try to entertain - there is nothing more pathetic or boring.  You see, at one time the Church successfully offered and supplied the extraordinary in life - now however, so much has become just plain ordinary - in it's presentation at least.   
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I may be wrong but it seems to me that the greatness of ordinary life is only found in and through the extraordinary greatness of the Church - it's liturgical life and worship which sanctifies, feeds, nourishes and animates.
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What the experts are saying.
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The churches once were packed. A Gallup poll 60 years ago found that 75 percent of Catholics said they attended Mass in the past seven days, compared to 45 percent today.
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Church leaders and researchers say the trend is driven by a combination of cultural and social forces, as well as the church’s failure to prepare its people for the elimination of the Latin Mass and other changes following the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s.

The clergy abuse scandal also hurt, but the drop in Mass attendance was under way long before the crisis erupted eight years ago.

The explanation cited most often for falling attendance is an increasingly secularized society that emphasizes individualism over community.

The role of the church in the social lives of Catholics also is waning. In the first half of the 20th century, the local parish was the hub of social activity for Catholics, many of whom were poor, working-class immigrants shunned by the rest of society.

Today, however, Catholics tend to be as educated and wealthy as Americans of any other faith. They don’t rely as much on the church because they don’t have to. - Cincinnati.com

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It may sound old fashioned, but in the early 20th century and throughout the 1950's the importance of devotion and fraternal organizations which facilitated it, focused upon sanctification.  For instance, groups such as the Holy Name Society, Altar and Rosary Society, Legion of Mary, along with the Dominic Savio Club, or the Maria Goretti Club, were featured attractions for parishioners, who actively participated in and contributed to the parish.  Nevertheless, the main attraction for all, or rather the source and summit of Church life remained the obligation of Sunday Mass - and it was extraordinary... 
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Get it?