One of the clearest signs of Bitcoin's cultural decadence was the sudden convergence among its influencers around opening Bitcoin to use cases it was never originally designed to serve.

Suddenly the same people who once preached that Bitcoin must never compromise its principles are celebrating its ability to be used for everything.

My suspicion is that Bitcoin's cultural transformation was not accidental.
As the movement grew, the people attracted to it increasingly brought with them the values Bitcoin originally opposed: convenience, consumption, status, financialization, mass approval, and the desire to make Bitcoin useful to the very values it was meant to overthrow.