As Pat and Sean indicated above, the trend is lower or no initiation fees in those clubs that have been hard hit by resignations and/or are struggling for members. In the Philadelphia area, the probable buyer of LuLu has been operating his current club, Blue Bell, as a lower cost annual fee fee club for a few years and has attracted many members from other clubs where the annual dues are higher and former public course players. Also, many clubs are offering weekday only memberships to attract the senior members,twilight memberships and/or limited play social memberships. Anything for cash flow.
As far as initiation fees are concerned, I recently played golf in a GAP event and was paired with a member from a fairly prominent local club. When asked about membership at his club, he said that they used to have a waiting list but since the economy went south, there were a lot of resignations and the waiting list dissolved. He went on to say that not many prospective members are now willing to pay the 20K initiation fee and the club is decding what to do about lowering the fee. To me it's an easy decision, just follow the Gillette theory: Give away the razors and sell the blades. It's a tough decision for a prominent club to make unless they have a benefactor among their members who is willing to fund yearly deficits.
I don't see many clubs openly admitting a semi-private status. Perhaps that will change.