There's the question. Was there something suspicious about how all other candidates engineered excuses to drop out (well save for the couple of also-rans I suppose). Or was it just one of those things ?
I have some doubts that it was all above board; it all seemed very convenient that two candidates find a 'backstab & give up' scenario between them to get out, whilst the remaining other gives the press ammunition, tells them not to use it, and then uses the result to bow out. One might wonder if there was an acceptance of May being best for the party, and the others informed that they'd get their turn (or whatever) later.
If that is the case then yes, the party is treating the members with disdain. On the other hand if the extremely weird set of unreasonable situations were just unplanned occurrences, then it would be just unfortunate that despite the size of the Conservative party all alternative candidates were so unsuitable. That should tell us something about the state of the party.
Ideally with a Brexit on the agenda obviously the leader of the party should be someone who believed in that action, and in the sovereignty of our nation. The risk of giving away too much in the ongoing relationship negotiations for after we leave, is much higher from someone who never wanted to go. But we can now only see what happens.
Meanwhile, as I've pointed out in another thread; "Brexit means Brexit" is a meaningless sound bite, but which seems to be fooling many to believe that it is some kind of promise. That is a bit worrying.