It is exactly this issue of Guilds being run by a single leader/player, that caused so much woe.
If that leader/player quits or whatever, the guild/faction dies. Doesn't help that many DMs are "stolen" guild leaders!
The majority of guilds/factions that I've started, for example, were precisely made with an idea and desire for there to be no leader, for it to be a round table, some form of anachro-democracy. But experience has shown that if I stop playing regularly—or I get poached to DM

—the guild/faction dies/died.
This is why it seems so important that some form of NPC guides every guild, so that if the leadership has to drop out, the importance and validity of the guild can carry on, because the NPC lives on...meaning any current or future DM can work that NPC to the benefit of the guild.
A small but good step forward, I'd say. Is anybody listening?