Yes, we are lacking in leadership.
We aren’t lacking in gedolim.
We aren’t lacking in Yeshivos, mesivtos, kollelim.
We aren’t lacking in self righteous middlemen, askonim, and the like.
But we are lacking in hundreds, in tens of thousands of Yeshiva and Seminary educated men and women standing up and relying upon the rock solid foundations of chinuch that their parents and past generations of our manhigim were moser nefesh to build and provide.
Are we lacking in emunas chachomim? Maybe. But if we don’t behave as educated, choice making, God fearing Jews, who don’t have a need to ask a “leader” which shoe to tie first in the morning, we are for sure lacking in emunas hashem. And kibud av voem, and hakoras hatov.
If you can sit in Yeshiva for 5 years and not have the confidence to look up a teyrutz before feeling the need to read a “leader’s” pashkevil about a halachic issue, there’s something wrong with your worldview.
If you can sit in kollel for 10 years and not have the concentration on living a holy life that will let you walk down a street upon which there are non frum people walking in their normal dress without feeling a need emulate what you perceive to be the will of a “leader” to castigate them for their impiety, you may have missed the point of view of Hillel Hazokein.
We are lacking in leadership, indeed. We have families to lead. We have neighborhoods to lead. we each have our flocks. We’ve been given good guidance, we have incredibly learned people to ask for help when we can’t figure things out for ourselves.
But we have only one shepherd.