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In fraternities, shorter initiation periods in themselves are not the sole problem. There are other factors that influence this. I'm not going to address sororities in this post; their pledge selection is altogether different.
The colleges/Greek Life offices tend to have more sway over greek eligibility. Because more colleges are funding house expansion/building, they feel that they have standing to influence pledgings as well; after all, why not make sure that the house can repay the college's funding?
Another aspect is how the current college age kids interact. Now, interaction is considered to be a text message, a tweet, or a facebook update. It's the instant gratification that's important. And if that is the focus, turnover will just happen.
The last item is that the existing members seem to lack the skills of how to recruit a prospect. Selection is more important than before; if you
screw up a selection, it may be after initiation that it is found that there are issues or problems, hence turnover. The shorter period is not an issue as long as the chapter and the pledge can still discern whether compatibility exists. Most rush chairmen do not want to take the harder path of 'hey, this guy has qualities we like and we can help develop', althought this is typically how a business would recruit a new employee. After all, if the chapter is not helping it's members, what's the attraction to staying a member? And that's where the chapters seem to forget the advise of an alumni group or alumni advisor; because the rush chairmen do not perceive a benefit in asking alumni for help in recruiting, and because of that the rush chairmen tend to lose legacies.
Just my opinion.
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