Those bongo drums and guitars are supposed to secularize the ceremony and make the hip-hop crowd feel comfortable.
The chattering that goes on as soon as the gaggle enters what passes for a sanctuary proves that those people believe there is nothing important about to happen.
Oh, and where's that tabernacle? Open enough doors and you'll be sure to see it. The priest is merely the president of the congregation and he generally sits during the readings and if a deacon is available he doesn't even read the gospel.
There is nothing Catholic about the Novus Ordo. When one goes from church to church and especially to a foreign country, one has no idea what is going on.
The new churches are bare and look like aircraft hangars. Votive candles? Forget it. Some have electric ones that will stay lit with a Chinese light bulb for a few hours. The sermons are dry as toast and nothing controversial comes forth like ‘watch out how you live your life or you may spend an eternity in hell.
I can’t say I see much of what you’re describing in my parish.
No bongo drums, and guitars are relegated to the Saturday evening Vigil Mass.
No chattering in the church, though some quiet conversations go on in the narthex before and after Mass.
Tabernacle is center front, and everyone makes a gesture of reverence to it. Votive candles are front/right, and used.
And here’s a clue. The “Novus Ordo” is just as much Catholic as the tridentine Latin mass it replaced, as it was instituted by the Supreme Pontiff and the bishops in council.
Since I came from an Episcopal/Anglican background, the Novus Ordo is very familiar. Yes, the language is a bit mundane. IMO, what the council should have done was steal a “Book of Common Prayer” from the Episcopalians, correct the doctrinal errors, and use it. The “antiquarian” (Elizabethan) English adds the needed extra degree of reverence that you think is missing.
The Anglicans may have been heretics, but they turned out some of the most beautiful English translations ever done. The Douay-Rheims bible can’t hold a candle to the King James, linguistically.
And “modern” bibles may be more accurate and doctrinally sound, but artistic and inspiring language they do NOT possess. Just compare the 23rd Psalm from the King James to the current version (actually, there “is” no comparison).