In my personal experience I have 'unofficially' faded. I am a rare attender at meetings with no fs and I attend assemblies and conventions so that my wife will not have to be there by herself and answer a bunch of nosy questions from nosy jw's.
Having been an elder for over 2 decades, most of the local brothers still have a fondness and a 'sort of respect' for me. I believe this respect is born out of the fact that I was many times a contrarian but I could back up my contrary view with the bible and/or statements published in the wt literature. Because of this many of my former very close jw friends still ask me questions about things when the borg comes up with their 'nu lite' bs. Many of these life long jw's are losing confidence in the wt and beginning to question some of the sh*t they see and hear. So, IMHO, yes the confidence level is sinking fast.
just saying!