Probably people became desensitized to it, and new leadership wants them to pivot back to the middle and sit in between MSNBC and Fox. This then fits within their new more serious, investigative, fact based image they’re trying to portray.
Yeah, that's one idea I had... maybe centrist (or eventually right-wing) politics benefit the owners more at this point. I guess we'll see.
My feeling is that "clickbaits" chew on reader and viewer trust and eventually you churned it down until it doesn't work anymore.