It strikes me that we have a situation that is unique. Today, Everyone from Gedolim to the most casual learner has access to the entire corpus of Torah shebichsav and Torah Shebealpeh, and almost every sefer written since the gemara was concluded is either extant or referenced in another sefer. At times, there were communities where even a shas was an impossibility to have or see (for example in France in the late 13th century, after almost every shas was burned) and the conduit for halachic knowledge narrowed to one or two Rabbonim in each city. And now, more than ever in history, there are growing numbers of talmidei chachomim or at least competent learners who can access all of those texts. In my opinion this poses both a danger and an opportunity, as seen from a halachic viewpoint. The opportunity is to have a more halachicly literate am yisroel, who have the capacity to find relevant halachos and teshuvos as well as the capacity to ask a Rov for guidance. The danger is that not only are those sources available to bnei Torah, they are available to everyone, and those without a vested interest in a halachic life may view and use that corpus of halacha in ways foreign to frum communities. There is also the danger (perceived or real, I don’t know), that frum Jews will make more recourse to the corpus of halachic material they have access to, and will perhaps do so when they might or should be seeking further guidance from a Rov.
How does this relate to the initial post? Well, again, in my opinion, the natural, and I think the intuitive response to these dangers from what we could call “halachic leadership” is to raise more gedarim, create stricter community standards, and generally engage in what the OP described as a slide to the right. It would serve the purpose of “protecting” the community from transgression and it would also remind the community that Jewish communities have a structure and that structure relies on the guidance of the Rabbinic leadership.
Now, there may be questions raised as to if the intuitive response is the best or the only response to the challenge I presented above, but I think that is beyond the scope of this thread.
Notice how this post observes, but is not judging.