Maybe folk music changed because liberal politics did. It's an entirely subjective opinion, but I get the feeling that when I was young, the Left was about equality of opportunity, i. e. giving every person the chance to achieve to the limits of his/her/its abilities, regardless of the social class or economic condition they were born into, but that now it's about equality of condition, which requires eliminating "elitism" by artificially propping up the less abled (which is all right up to a point) and holding down the exceptionally able, so they won't achieve too much and make the less able feel bad.

This is certainly the way it appears to be working in public education, anyway.

Like I said, entirely subjective.

Peter.