The OP, I believe, is addressing the ever increasing control being imposed by moderators. I've seen this happen the last 2 years.
Another example that got much less attention. Jerrymrc slammed a member because they started a thread with a link to an article about rice having arsenic. Jerry didn't like what the article said and proclaimed he wasn't going to put up with that “chicken little crap on his thread” and shut the thread down.
It seems all good things degenerate:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degeneration