I've popped in on this elsewhere several times. The OP blocks me, ironically for my posting on this very topic a few years ago.
This race grouping by age and gender (or school) thing is causing the collapse. There are also too many disciplines getting equal billing. They are not equal in commitment, or money generated. Promoters are expected to serve all groups. In the late 70s/early 80s when I raced the bike, it was pretty much just road racing, or business park circles on the same bike and then just a very few groups. Now there are nats jerseys in cx, MTB, crits, RR, hill climbs, track in 2 genders, collegiate/cat and many age splits. There are ~100 national jerseys given.
In local racing some folks have 3-4 races in a day they qualify for, while the most elite may have 1 race - or none. The motivator to be the most elite is to say you are, and you may race less without travel.
If racing were done more like a fondo, where everyone just races together based on ability until a group was "full" cost would go way down, see other pages of arguments on it.
But yea, it will collapse.