IMHO, here's Harley's problem - they're trying to please everyone and they are pleasing no one.
By that I mean there seems to be essentially two motorcycle markets. One for the "DIY" guy who doesn't care about big power and high tech. Just wants an old fashioned Harley that he can tinker on for a relatively low price. The other for the "modern" guy who wants gps, electronic everything, water cooled, big power, and doesn't want to do anything but ride it.
The idea of making big power on these ancient lawn mower engines is a joke. Big inch twin cams and M8s all have reliability issues and even after throwing thousands of dollars at them still can't compete with a stock BMW or Honda off the showroom floor.
I thought it would have made sense to develop a modern touring bike based on the VRod engine, but HD killed it.
I don't see HD surviving selling overpriced, underperforming and unreliable bikes much longer. Their customer service and handling of issues is compounding their problems. They need big changes and a leader to take them in a different direction.