The downfall is more severe and quick when the propagators of the religion have worldly desires like greed for money, lust for power and thirst for fame. A few, who are capable of thinking for themselves step out and survive. But most of them lose faith in the religion all together. Hordes of false preachers block the view of the religion in its pristine purity. Intellectual grasp of a religion is only the first step.
Religion has much more to do with the emotional and the spiritual being within.
These people stand at the outermost gate into the Temple of God, without anyone to show the way even to keep one right step. This is the state of the Western world. I have talked to a few software engineers in Germany. Well, that is what they have inherited from their preachers. In India, religion has become dirty and dogmatic quite a few number of times.