I left ECUSA 22 years ago, long before the current issues had come to the fore. I don't think papal authority necessarily made the difference; I think ECUSA simply had a nastier infection of liberalism (though I will admit that an ultimate authority can slam on the brakes, and I hope Benedict 16 will do so). In my case I had seen a major problem at a diocesan level; I also recall reading for some time after my departure of the problems Rome was having with the American Catholic church.
Look at the other protestant churches in various stages of the same problem; are the ones further along the ones with less authority?
"Look at the other protestant churches in various stages of the same problem; are the ones further along the ones with less authority?"
Yes.
The ones with the least authority are very religious and conservative, which seems good. But they hold the Bible as an idol and do not partake of the sacraments, which were THE ways that God left us to come close to him. He left communion, not a Bible dispensary. They don't have Bishops, they do have the Bible, and they don't take the eucharist. They believe that the middle of the two substitutes for the former...which is what the argument over authority is about...AND the latter, without which, there is not much left of the faith that Jesus left.