Ugh, I am tempted to treat that as a rhetorical question. HOW COULD THEY???!!! *incoherent outrage*

Elven society has gone rotten in the last few decades. Sorin is an ineffective leader, and Saralla willfully blinds herself to a lot of negative things. In the absence of a strong official government, a underworld shadow-government will often fill the void, among people as well as elves.

A few years ago, when Paul was still Kiv and he was telling Vash that he couldn't give up, he wasn't only speaking about the "OMG you must marry Iylaine and have babies or our civilization is DOOMED" aspect of the elven situation.

“If one of us must die, it should be I.”

“Then what will become of the rest of us? Vash? You begin to sound like your father.”

“You came here to insult me?” Vash asked with a bitter laugh.

“Comparing you to your father is not an insult. But you know you are not like him, and the rest of us take hope in that. I think it is harder to see you as you are now than it was when you were missing.”

“How am I?” Vash muttered.

“Hateful. With that, our hope is gone.”

I won't go into more details at this time, but it's something to ponder.