Actually, I think it was EPO that had the main effect.  EPO showed up in about mid-1997 and has been growing since.  That corresponds to the drop in attendance.  I believe the cult claimed that 8,000 people attended a program in Long Beach in 1996, and that was "the largest" for some long period of time in the West.  I think in 1997 the Long Beach event was smaller, and no event since has reached 8,000 in the West.  Now, they brag about 3,000 (or was it less?) at an event in Miami.

I really do think that EPO has been the major change, which way beyond EPO itself, it just started some fence-sitting premies to perhaps think a thought or two about what they were doing and what they actually believed.