It has been in a nose dive for "everyday" people. But there is a whole section of society where they are treated as minor celebrities. The number of those people are shrinking (thankfully) but they are sizable enough for some journalists to break out and make bank through their substacks e.g. Bari Weiss is bringing in 800,000K a year via substack.
Bari Weiss falls into the category "homogeneity creates rewards to heresy" in the article.
Bari Weiss is heretical to mainstream journalism because she has pushed back against CRT, mask mandates, etc.
Because she's a sane-sounding lefty that is voicing some concerns that the left-wing media is afraid to touch, she has found a great market for her content, just as the article says.
Maybe. I get your point. I saw the clip of her on Bill Marr's show that has been floating around. She has pushed back when it was safe to do so. The tide was already turning on that.
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/how-much-times-walkout-wei...
I don't think she is particularly interesting but a lot of people do.