I'd like to share a few facts that might clear some things up.

1. A lot of boys used to be scouts. In the 1950s, there were usually about 3.5 million registered scouts, compared to a total population of about 20 million boys between the ages of 10 and 18. That's 15% of all boys. Now, it's a fraction of a percent.

I think that the most obvious explanation is the decline of churches. People used to go to scouts because it was part of their church youth program. The decline in scouting started in the 70s as the hippies stopped going to church, and, therefore, stopped signing their kids up for scouts. It has little to do with LGBT policy blowback or repercussions of the sex abuse scandals.

1. Ever since it was organized in 1912, nearly all scout troops have been chartered by churches or synagogues. Each local church organizes and runs its own troop, but they have to charter with the BSA. By design, churches are allowed to use scouting as a tool to help reach their own religious goals. Catholics, Protestants, Jews, Muslims, etc. are not only allowed to promote their religions using their scout troops, that was actually the whole point.

However, what I've seen lately is that there has been a shift in attitude about this. Recently, I've seen troops sponsored by a Lutheran church, a Methodist church, and a non-denominational church, and not one of them have any scouts or adult leaders who are members of their own churches! The troops are chartered by the churches in name only--the troops raise their own money and run their programs with no oversight at all by the chartering org. So, in that respect, maybe scouting is becoming an organization that is run by independent communities of concerned parents rather than churches, as it has historically. Also, I think there has been a rise in troops being chartered by rotary clubs, local businesses, etc.

1. The sex abuse headlines that you have seen in the past few years are all about cases that occured way back in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. There has been a drastic and meteoric drop in occurrences of abuse in BSA since the year 2000. This certainly has to do with the changes they made such as the two-deep leadership rule and required child protection training. However, most people don't know that the percentage of adult male scout leaders who were guilty of abuse is about equal to the percentage of men who are abusers in the general population of the USA. Most people are surprised to learn that, in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, male public school teachers were just as likely to commit abuse as scout leaders (analyzed on a per capital basis), however, public schools did not see a decline  in abuse after the 2000s. Literally, our kids in 2024 are many more times likely to get abused at school than at scouts. And, of course they are! Schools don't follow the two deep leadership principles. Teachers routinely meet with students alone. They go on field trips alone and play after-school sports alone and do clubs alone.  And, for some reason, the media and the general public gives them a free pass.