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Atheism is rampant more due to a retreat from strictness. A poster on FR once pointed out that the reason why Christianity appealed to the Roman populace (who were really atheists just going through the motions of offering sacrifice to their gods), rather than the other competing religions is because Christianity was demanding, was strict. It gave people a sense of higher purpose.

When that relaxed with the Mainline Protestant groups ever since 1930 and Vatican II, there has been a drop in attendance

yet, most of these are not atheists -- it's very intellectually demanding to be an atheist and most people aren't -- they believe in something, even if it is a spirit, the Force, shopping day

No, what people are searching for is direction, discipline -- even if "they want to be free".

This is parallel to what Douglas Adams wrote about a world that had been shrouded by a cosmic cloud for millenia, when that cloud lifted and they saw the stars, they said "we don't like it, it must go" and they became fanatical in their aim to destroy everything in the universe. And no one understood why they would do that because the rest of the universe had lost it's passion.

Atheism is rampant more due to a retreat from strictness

There are many reasons for this that I can think of, and strictness is only part of it. Education, information, science, social and political changes all contributed their share.