Where are all the sect elders?

When the writers describe most sects in the stories (and also how all the TV adaptations show it), it is always conveniently* arranged such that the number of sect elders belonging to the Sect Leader's generation number in the small handfuls compared to the younger generations.

OK, for SOD, maybe the ambush by the Demon Sect could account for the thinning of the elder generation (e.g. why Hengshan only had 3 elder nuns but dozens of younger disciples, why Huashan Sword faction has a grand total of TWO [Yue and Ning] etc.).

But typically, it just seems that we always get a small handful (or less) of the elder generation while there always seems to be dozens and scores of younger generations. Even when accounting for some attrition, there really should be more elders around. (excluding 1st/2nd gen situations like Z3F and his 7 disciples or WCY).

So. Are there many more elders, just that they dont get screen time? Or for some sects, the disciples get married or go off to live their own lives later and only a few elders stay fully resident with the sect?

*I say 'convenient' because when you have 4 dozen elders, it would make the sect pretty strong when it comes to a brawl situation. e.g. if you had 30 YBQs to fight off Songshan. I guess it makes the plot easier when you dont have scores of senior high level fighters everywhere so that the named ones can stand out a bit more.

Shaolin might be an exception since we tend to see more of their elder generation but even then, you get the impression there are a lot more Xu or Hui generation monks compared to the Xuans (not many named Fang gen monks in SOD either). On this bit, isnt it nice and convenient that every named Xuan monk in DGSD seems to have learnt one of the 72 arts? Surely there are a bunch of em who never managed to advance enough and was stuck at Weituo Palm or something? Maybe those dont get to hand around the Abbot but it frankly, some learned Xuan monk with low martial skills should get a senior admin position (excluding Damo hall head) still.....

It makes sense, though. In what army are there more generals than soldiers? In what business are there more bosses than workers? That's simply the nature of top-down, hierarchical organizations, and in wulin, it's equally natural that there are far more weak fighters than strong fighters.

As for SOD, Sun Moon Cult does have a bunch of unnamed elders (who are as strong as Bujie Monk). Songshan also have a handful of ZLC's martial brothers iirc. But generally it's for the reason as Ken Chang said above.