The FIRST source of the anthropocentric liturgy problem is found in the General Instruction of the Roman Missal [Paul VI version aka “Novus Ordo” Missal], No. 86 “…the priest greets all present, using one of the formularies indicated. He or some other qualified minister may give the faithful a very brief introduction to the Mass of the day.” When Mass begins with the priest’s improvisatory blathering—directed towards the congregation—it sets the stage for the rest of the Mass to continue in a similar, improvisatory manner.
Now compare that with the following, ancient beginning of Mass: priest, facing the altar, silently says “Take away our iniquities, we beg You, Lord, that with pure minds we may be made worthy to enter into the Holy of Holies…[kissing the altar:] We pray, Lord, that by the merits of the saints whose relics are here and of all the saints, that you would deign to pardon me all of my sins.” [= conclusion of the “Prayers at the Foot of the Altar”; this conclusion is the most ancient part of this initial portion of the Traditional Latin Mass/TLM]. The even MORE ancient beginning of Mass? The completely silent prostration before the altar, which now only takes place on Good Friday. (Many parishes today simply can’t tolerate the proscribed silence here on Good Friday, so accompany this with music. How sad…)
The SECOND source of the problem is related: moving the initial greeting (in the 1969 Order of Mass) from its ancient position—immediately before the Collect (“Opening Prayer”)—to the very beginning of Mass. In the Roman Rite of the Mass, the greeting “Dominus vobiscum”/”The Lord be with you” always has signified a climactic moment in the Liturgy: the Collect (which “collects” or sums up the psalms and petitions that have preceded it); the Gospel (which is the climax of the Scripture readings); the Preface (which begins the Canon or “Eucharistic Prayer” aka “Anaphora”), etc. Moving the initial greeting to the very beginning of Mass caused it to lose its “liturgical function” and instead it became a sort of social greeting. Thus it was inevitable that it immediately would morph into “Good morning, everyone” “Good morning Father” “Is everyone asleep? That wasn’t loud enough” “GOOD MORNING FATHER!” “Much better!” bla bla bla bla gag
Simply fix these two massive defects in the 1969 Order of Mass and it will be the tiny start of slowly undoing a lot of damage and utter desacralization of the Mass. Simply “knowing” what the Mass “is” never will be enough to fix this. The liturgy ITSELF must make obvious what it “is”. Lex orandi, lex credendi.