One of the primary reasons I played MMORPGs was became they became virtual worlds where you could see one constant play out.... human nature.

Nearly all of them ultimately fell due to the phenomenon you describe. But, with a twist.

You have central people with power... the developers of the game. They have a place where the players can voice their opinions... like a forum. On the forum, you have about 50% whining. The whiners pretty much whine about the same thing, to oppress freedom lovers who hurt no one. But, because even though the freedom lovers don't care to compete, but just want to have fun, the whiners view the game as one big competition and cry that it is unfair that they can do this and that.

E.g., in EQOA, they cried because necromancers no longer needed tanks and healers? How can we have RPG if the tanks and healers aren't needed by every single group in the game? If 1% of the players can play without them, it could grow and eventually eliminate the healer and tank classes. That was their reasoning. Did the necromancers bother anyone alone in the desert killing big critters? No.

The whiners are LOUD and repetitious. The devs inevitably cater to their voice, as if it is the only "consensus" that matters. Truth is, they are likely the minority and most tanks and healers don't care, and thus don't waste time on the forums. But, the devs cater.

This leads to every single patch nerfing classes that others are jealous of. Jealousy drives game development. Years of this, and you begin to watch the number of active players drop, and towns dry up. This is how the games die.

The manufactured consent doesn't always come from the top, in this case devs. Sometimes, it just comes from loud repetitious whiners. The devs play ball because they believe they are pleasing the majority. They have become victims..