You have a point, as the leading officer in my guild I know first hand how difficult it is. Not only to get new recruits, but to remain in guild, participate in guild events, organize guildies, get recruits to register on website, continue to use the website and teaching about half of new recruits about everything in the game.
It just seems overly difficult to maintain a medium to very large guild in this game but I guess it falls on the GM/Officers heads nonetheless.