For what happened in 1976, I think secularization is right on.  As soon as we started to see Rawat as a man, and knowledge as something that was primarily just supposed to be helpful to your own life, then we had workshops, people got married, went back to school, got interested in things besides "service," and it was great.  I LOVED that period because premies really started to blossom, be really interesting and creative, etc.  So, in that sense it was more secular, because the people became more important, and Rawat less so.  It also meant that a lot of premies left, and most people moved out of the ashrams.

Because of what happened in 1976, the period after that is especially dark and repressive, although the festivals got more lavish.  Rawat's costumes got more flamboyant and, in retrospect, hilarious and embarassing.  But our lives shrunk in on themselves again.  Most of the premies I knew felt really guilty and beat themselves up for being so confused that they got more interested in life, other people, and humanity, than they should have.  Lots of satsang out how we had lost "focus" and how relieved we were that Rawat was getting us back on track.

That played itself out in some pretty bizarre ways over the next 7 years.