I see reddit as having three levels of censorship. User (downvotes), moderator, and administrator. The users can give a sort of "wisdom of the crowd" analysis that lets them evaluate subjective/borderline decisions better than moderators. Moderators deal with more clear rule violations like spam. Admins take a minimalistic hands off approach only getting involved when communities are bringing bad press to the site, bothering other communities, posting illegal content, that sort of stuff

The problems Reddit is facing now are largely a result of the admins getting more activist as Reddit is more visible than ever. They're not just merely banning subs now. They're quarantining them. They've systemically changed their algorithms to stop controversial content from being seen by most users. They're saber rattling against mod teams more and stacking mod teams. The users have gone from a core of mostly geek to well your typical eternal september users. The moderators are censor-happy and seriously don't know how to fuck off.

Reddit will never be as good as it once was because its size is such a liability. This is a site which went from a founding member risking jail to post stuff from JSTOR to the internet to founders who decided they've "Grown up" ($$$) and don't care about free speech anymore.