Their numbers are down after their wars. They are likely not as strong as they once were. But consider the survivors now are blooded veterans. The young wardens who survived the wars are now considerably more dangerous per man than before, and many of their opponents have also been weakened. The Blamps have never recovered from Dracula - sure, the survivors are the stronger deadlier ones... but so few. The Ramps are GONE. The Whites lost a number of high ranks in the Deeps, and they do not infect, they breed, and Lara is even less an open warfare type than most. The Fomor were hurt in the battle of Chicago - with few wizards involved, their big gun taken away. And trying to take out a noncombatant former KOTC might draw attention. Plus... the surface powers that be will now know more about them. Who isn;t damaged? Outsiders? The WC was not going to be such a deterrent to them already
Arguably, MOST of the major players are all in the same state: reduced in numbers, but most having each-one-much-more-dangerous survivors.
But the White Council, in particular, may be "shakier" than most of the others.
#1 -
Until the Vamp-War, I don't think they had any substantive conflicts with most of the other major powers. There was the fight with Kemmler, but (from others' POV) that may have looked a lot like a mortal-wizard-vs-mortal-wizard fight. One of the recurring elements of the novels is that people keep referring to the White Council as "doddering old fools," perhaps a once-mighty tree but now weak & aged & ready to fall. I don't doubt that it's stronger than those outside POV's think... but I also think that when
multiple predators are calling out a weakness, it's likely real. Nobody
really knows just how dangerous the White Council is (or isn't), I think; not even the White Council itself !
#2 - Most of the dangerous monsters are... well,
dangerous. The same is not nearly so true for wizards. Many of them have little to offer a war-effort. Combat powers aren't the most common suite of aptitudes, and even logistical-support wizards aren't dime-a-dozen. But those are mostly who the fights have been taking: the fighters, and the supply-lines. Leaving behind mostly noncombatant wizards, ill-suited to fight whampires and blampires and fomor and warlocks &c...
#3 - The WC is like the Whamps: "they don't infect, they breed." Furthermore, the little proto-wizards then need extensive training; without it, they're at least as much a danger to themselves and their allies, as they are to any foes (and the combat-wizards being teachers aren't on the front lines being soldiers). Compare a whampire: they can get basic combat training (hand-to-hand, blades, guns) in their pre-teen years (from mortals!), but when they do the 1st-kill-whampout, they *instantly* become vastly more-dangerous, with even ordinary whamps gaining speed and strength to beat most professional soldiers,
plus their whamp-whammy powers.