The Conservative Party is losing members, it appears that the membership is below 70,000 that is an unconfirmed figure but also not denied.

Why is this happening?
Is it due to the fact that the Central Office is getting more remote whilst trying to control everything.
The ordinary member is not being used as a sounding board any more, the old Conservative Political Forum or as it used to be, the Conservative Political Committee appears to have disappeared. The days of Ministers putting forward subjects for discussion have gone.

It appears that the ordinary member is only needed to raise funds.
It used to be that any prospective Parliamentary Candidate that was on the approved list could write to an Association where there was a vacancy and they would all be interviewed or weeded out by the local association. Now the association is only allowed to select their future MP from a short list of two supplied by Central Office.

Is all of this modern democracy?