First up I'm a Cambridge fan and am gutted that you've ended up in the conference, but glad we replaced you in league 2.
I watched Cambridge in the premier league playoffs and watched our decline for the following years until we hit the non league. I can tell you that the full realisation of this didn't hit me until I went to Grays athletic one Tuesday night. Crap ground, crap team, rap attendance and we got hammered.....
We struggled for the first 2 seasons and flirted with oblivion and relegation, then came close with 2 playoff defeats at Wembley before stabilising and finally getting a great manager and a superb chairman and finally winning at Wembley.
Last year we built a team of young players and older ones with something to prove, we had a break even projections of 2300 fans and thanks to Richard Money played the loan market well with a series of excellent signings. Each and everyone bought into his vision or they were dumped. We made a profit and have come back healthier than ever before.
This league is hard, there are clubs who throw money at it with little success and others like Kidderminster that run well and come close every year. One up by right is a license for financial problems. Having seen us try both approaches you need to be well run with a well connected decent manager.
I hope you find the team and the manager and board to make it happen, but you need the right manager and that is critical.
Don't compare yourself to Luton, remember that only got relegated after having a 30 point penalty, they should have bounced straight back, the fact they took so long sums up this league. They tried a lot of managers until like us they got the right one.
Remember we were never out of the top 2 all last season and we still nearly missed out....
I sincerely wish you good luck. But I fear you have a few seasons of this crap until you turn it around.