That is indeed a pity and very sad to hear. If you and your friends do not attend the Church who failed, you or the Church? I live in an extremely vibrant Catholic community of Church goers my age and younger. I went through what you seem to be calling the "touchy , feely" Church and came away with the exact opposite impression of Vatican II. I clearly remember the old, boring Latin Mass the had no more relevance to me as a young boy than Dwight Eisenhower's news conferences. What I saw with Vatican II was an attempt on the part of the Church to reach out to the community as a whole and not to the four or five old women that went to church each and every day to say the rosary. My childhood Church was unfilled and empty until after Vatican II. I have been an active member of four different parishes in the last twenty years and all have been vibrant enthusiastic parishes with most Masses filled with people of all ages.
My statement of diminishing returns is just what it implies. The old Church was made up of mostly old people who were more worried about getting into heaven after age 50 than they were about religion as a gift from God. I cannot comprehend the belief by some that the Church should go back to the "old ways." If that happens that will mean the numerical end of Catholic Church membership within the United States within one generation.
Just one point: what you are describing isn't mentioned anywhere in Vatican II. Just to be precise.