A lot of it is covered in the thread I linked to earlier.
Committees could operate under one of two different governance models. Either benevolent dictatorship or consensus (voting). Most committees used to operate as benevolent dictatorship. This enabled the chairperson to do whatever needed to be done without meetings, votes, delays, etc. If the chairperson wanted to see which way the wind was blowing they could have a vote. Other chairpersons wanted the consensus model so they had meetings and voted on many more things than benevolent dictatorships would. Somewhere along the way the benevolent dictatorship model was removed and some other changes were made. For many committees this greatly complicated the role of being a chairperson. In my opinion this is when the space started to become less functional overall.
Purchasing things went from a widespread effort to just a couple of people. What used to take a 10 minute trip to buy something down the street became an email chain and days or weeks of delay. This greatly impacted the smaller stuff like repairing a door knob, stocking screw drivers and small tools, oil absorbent and other safety supplies, and all the little stuff you take for granted until it’s not working anymore.
Chairpersons were sometimes decided upon by a vote of the committee but not always. People were usually appointed because they seemed like they had aptitude or could improve the situation somehow. Elections became the main way chairpersons were chosen which devolved into popularity contests and proxy voting wars that were a disservice to DMS and it’s members.
People used to be appointed for better reasons than popularity, people used to be enabled to do more things in less time, and it was easier to get things done whether a big thing or a small thing. The current policies seem to be setup to limit the damage a bad chairperson can do versus enabling a good chairperson to be as effective as possible. We seem to hang onto bad chairpersons and have trouble recruiting better ones. I think that’s mostly because of the changes made to how committees operate but I’m certainly open to other viewpoints because a rising tide raises all boats.