Juxtapose Season 1 with Season 41. Very few, if any, of the cast from Season 1 would ever be cast in Season 41. Imagine Rudy showing up for Survivor an audition in 2021? They wouldn't even consider him because "his kind" has been made up to be the enemy of the tiny vocal minority that controls the culture today. Susan hawk? No way, too crass. Richard Hatch? Not even close, despite him being gay. He is way too politically incorrect for today's TV.
Gervase Peterson? Not woke enough with social justice. Sean Kenniff? Too much of a cisgender straight male that hasn't accepted an arbitrary white privilege.
And this is why Survivor has lost its mojo. Not because the audience and country have changed, because they haven't. But because a tiny tiny minority of newly woke college grads that took over Twitter 5-6 years back now influences everything we see and hear today. I cannot imagine Survivor being around another 1-2 seasons the way it's going.
The foregoing and the fact the show seem too manipulated with too many twists and turns has led to its demise and that is such a shame because I used to turn into Survivor because I didn't feel like I was being preached to.