Political Weirdos

While he was always an asshole, everyone has some ratio of bad/good. In the early/mid 2010s he was able to keep enough of a lid on things that he had a positive reputation with among both the public and investors.

Back then he still had his handler/business mommy Mary Beth Brown. She had basic control over his scheduling and publicity outreach since he started Tesla. In 2014 he canned her after she asked for a raise, he's been handling his own pr and schedule ever since.

The problem with assuming that this is a recent change in personality is that it requires ignoring all his prior reported behaviour. It ignores how much media marketing actually changes our perceptions of powerful people.

No Elon did not become an asinine child overnight, he's been that way the whole time. He just believes he's now rich enough that he doesn't have to pretend to be a different person. No JFK Jr did not become an insane person because he watched too much fox news, he's literally been eating roadkill since he was a child.

All of these wealthy and powerful people have an entire system working for them dedicated to protecting their public image.