OK , let's try again.

Members of the Freemasons, Skull and Bones Society, Scottish Rite, or whatever no longer have any reason to use the obfuscatory symbols, rites, and arcane language that were developed in the Middle Ages and made even more complex in the Renaissance as the Church, the monarchs, and the nobility became more power hungry and avaricious.

As monarchies and the aristocracy declined, along with the power and wealth of the Church, so did the chicanery and obfuscation of the secret societies: no more real need for alchemy, secret bloodlines, rites, or ancient science/geometry that informs city planning, art, and architecture. The scientists and heretics no longer needed protecting and safe-havening.

Now these societies seem to exist as good ole boys networks to promote the acquisition and hoarding of wealth among members, and even to keep a kind of corporate lock on the expression of ideas and belief systems... thus the trend towards the demonization of science and scientists and the promotion of Christian fundie principles and policies. This is just the opposite of what the societies were founded to protect and try to keep alive.

ananda