There is no singular explanation for the decline of the church. But when the church loses its voice, it loses its legitimacy.
And that is what happened in Nazi Germany when the church settled for co-existence with the Nazi state. In the wake of that moral failure, is it any surprise that many in Germany and the rest of Europe see no need for the church. If it was irrelevant then (and in many cases complicit), it seems even more irrelevant now. When the church can't speak out against tyranny, then it has no ability to say "follow me". It is an impostor, a white washed tomb. This applies at an institutional level with obvious exceptions at the individual level (eg. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Sophie Scholl and countless others).
I think there is at least one related parallel today. Specifically, the evangelical movement's immersion in politics. It is hard to serve as a witness to Jesus Christ when shallow political sloganeering implies some form of heaven-on-earth through government. This denigrates the sovereignty of Jesus Christ and erects an idol that will inevitably fall.
The sooner, the better.
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