I have a template where changes are indicated with a <change> element.
For the particular transformation I'm doing I don't care if something
is changed or not. My current stylesheet is dropping information, and
I can't quite figure out why.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<section qpid="ep001014.10">
					<change>
							<sectionnumber>2.10.</sectionnumber>
							<sectiontext>Community Care Facilities</sectiontext>
							<subsection qpid="ep001014.10.1">
								<subsectionnumber>2.10.1.</subsectionnumber>
								<subsectiontext>Construction</subsectiontext>
								<article qpid="ea002081">
									<articlenumber>2.10.1.1.</articlenumber>
									<articletext>Construction</articletext>
								</article>
							</subsection>
					</change>
							<subsection qpid="ep001014.10.2">
								<subsectionnumber>2.10.2.</subsectionnumber>
								<subsectiontext>Staffing</subsectiontext>
								<article qpid="ea002082">
									<articlenumber>2.10.2.1.</articlenumber>
									<articletext>Staffing</articletext>
								</article>
							</subsection>
						
</section>

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<xsl:stylesheet version="1.0" xmlns:xsl="http://www.w3.org/1999/XSL/Transform">

<xsl:variable name="cr"><xsl:text>
</xsl:text></xsl:variable>

<xsl:template match="/">
<root><xsl:value-of select="$cr"/>
<xsl:apply-templates/>
</root>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="section">
<HED2>Section <xsl:apply-templates
select="descendant::sectionnumber"/><xsl:text>
</xsl:text><xsl:apply-templates
select="descendant::sectiontext"/></HED2><xsl:value-of select="$cr"/>
<xsl:apply-templates select="*[not(descendant-or-self::sectionnumber
or descendant-or-self::sectiontext)]"/>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="sectionnumber"><xsl:apply-templates/></xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="sectiontext"><xsl:apply-templates/></xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="subsection">
<HED3><xsl:apply-templates
select="descendant::subsectionnumber"/><xsl:value-of
select="$tab"/><xsl:apply-templates
select="descendant::subsectiontext"/></HED3><xsl:value-of
select="$cr"/>
<xsl:apply-templates
select="*[not(descendant-or-self::subsectionnumber or
descendant-or-self::subsectiontext)]"/>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="subsectionnumber"><xsl:apply-templates/></xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="subsectiontext"><xsl:apply-templates/></xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="article">
<HED4><xsl:apply-templates
select="descendant::articlenumber"/><xsl:value-of
select="$tab"/><xsl:apply-templates
select="descendant::articletext"/></HED4><xsl:value-of select="$cr"/>
<xsl:apply-templates select="*[not(descendant-or-self::articlenumber
or descendant-or-self::articletext)]"/>
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="articlenumber"><xsl:apply-templates/></xsl:template>
<xsl:template match="articletext"><xsl:apply-templates/></xsl:template>

<?xml version='1.0' ?>
<root>
<HED2>Section 2.10. Community Care Facilities</HED2>
<HED3>2.10.2.	Staffing</HED3>
<HED4>2.10.2.1.	Staffing</HED4>
</root>

As you can see <subsection> 2.10.1. is being dropped along with
<article> 2.10.1.1. This must have something to do my
apply-templates="*[not(descendant-or-self:: ...." but from my
understanding on this it means:

"apply all templates except for the next <number> or <text> element
whether it is the next child or descendant of the calling element"

which is why I can't understand why after the section element it
doesn't go on to process the change element, skip the sectiontext and
sectionnumber element and go on to process the subsection element.