Why did bad leadership never destroy the Catholic Church?

The mainstream Baha'i religion resembles Catholicism in that it is run by a centralized institution that calls all the shots. For the last 20 years the Baha'i religion has been plummetting in numbers and in activity because of really stupid decisions made by the leadership 20 years ago. It's to the point that I think if a breakaway sect does not organize soon I think the Baha'i religion will go extinct.

I wonder why in all the centuries and centuries that catholicism has been around the Catholic leadership never did anything stupid that resulted in their religion going extinct.