My hot take on your posts on the downfall of syncretic pop culture: it’s a side effect of the growth of populism on the left and right. Populists as a group tend to view art as little more than a means to a political end, encouraging insouciance toward pop culture that wasn’t developed by *your* ingroup. Ironically I consider Family Guy to be the beginning of the decline: its approach to humor is proto-Friedberg & Seltzer in its lack of respect for its audience’s intelligence.