I think most serious thinkers on the topic would hold that religion ceased to provide that social function at about the time of Renaissance, when probably not just co-incidentally, the capitalist revolution in European affairs was also starting to take off. (When merchants, travelers, mercenaries, pirates, and other formerly estranged or outcast people began to have the resources to contest power with kings, soldiers, and priests.) Since capitalism, the church has instead played its other historical role -- social iconoclast. Instead of authorizing group leadership, a positive act of power, it's role within modernity is to challenge group leadership, or destroy it, a negative act of power.