I think Vidiot has the truth of it.....at least in our case. My wife and I fled the Society in the mid 1960's.......... my mother despaired over the length of my hair. She couldn't get past it.
She remained an uber JW. Died at the age of ninety still believing Armageddon was right around the corner.
It was a looser religion in that era....a lot of parties, drink fests. International assemblies....... pioneering where the need was great and of course avoiding Vietnam.
Then as the 1960's progressed it all unraveled in the late sixties for our generation. 1975 turned into a laughing stock.
The Elder arrangement was reinstated, Raymond Franz questioned why the JW's couldn't study their bible where one or two gathered together. He was spanked soundly and shunned and the beginning of the end started.
We are definitely in the last days folks......at least for the WT Society you can't stay viable if over sixty percent of born-ins leave.