It may be that apathy has more to do with the decline of churches. People are less social and are wondering why they are getting up early on their day of rest. They are wondering why they are sitting quietly listening to some guy drone on about something. With fewer people going there is less social pressure to go. You can still hold public office. More people would rather sit at home and binge watch that show they have seen 10 times and buy something from Amazon.

There are as many reason for people to not go to church as there are people that do not go.