Yes, religious and intellectual leadership is needed, both to guide the masses and to counterbalance the destructive tendencies of sociopathic elites. Since this leadership is mostly gone, society will continue to deteriorate until a stable dark age or idiocracy-type situation is reached. There is little individuals can do to build communities in such a situation.

The obvious counterexample is the monastic movement in late Rome.

In what ways can decent individuals substantially improve their own lives, let alone rectify the situation, in a society as depraved as this one? It's all but impossible through individual effort. Some level of decency must exist in society in order for individual action to have any effect. Decency and good values are not only rare, but are actively suppressed, while bad values are imposed and enforced. And now international travel is being suppressed, so it's increasingly difficult for individuals to improve their own lives by going to a less depraved place.

As you know, there still are options for places to move to. This is one step. Another is to get married and form a decent family. This helps both you and the future.

I think it's unrealistic to expect individuals just to step up and create value, because there is (a) no support to do so and (b) modern society hates and seeks actively to destroy anything of real value.

Not everyone has the skills to create value, but those who do generally fail to create value because of lack of will. We have a very current example here. The only reason that there doesn't exist a free speech Reddit alternative is lack of will. Now that the tech guy running SaidIt has developed the will, it will be done. The problem was never opposition from modern culture. The problem just the lack of will to do it.

The few remaining decent communities have high barriers to entry, whether formal or informal.

Yes this is challenging, but forming or joining decent communities is so important that deserves continuous effort to find a solution.

In the past year and half, a lot of decent churchgoing people who thought they were supporting conservative religions found out that their leadership is aligned with the satanic global regime, and totally unqualified to give moral guidance. The few remaining religious communities that have not capitulated are difficult to join for various reasons.

Let us thank God for covid and the vaccine which allows us to easily distinguish between good and evil. This was actually the biggest problem in the past, and now it is solved. Now we know where it is worth trying to focus our energy.