Tldr: All in all, Elon hasn't really changed how he operates, it's just that since aligning openly with the right he has been more open about a lot of shit and also has been boosting a lot of shit he probably doesn't really believe. This in turn has extinguished a lot of the support he had in the internet which leads to people actually scrutinizing his character and a lot more than what he says has come to light or is being analyzed in a different light to what it was back then, painting Elon as the evil and stupid billionare he actually is.
The actual comment:
I know you said to not say he has always been like that, but the honest truth is he has been like that, it's just that the media was used to taking everything he said at face value and he was a bit more restrained (although not necessarily on interviews themselves).
The amount of controversy about him busting unions, having poor working conditions, stealing credit from his engineers, this was always public knowledge even when he was generally beloved by the common redditors. This is not meant to be a dig or anything, but at least on the leftists circles I tend to participate in this was always mentioned whenever he was in talks, it's just that most people don't care when billionares are exploitative pieces of shit, yhey just care about the image they sell.
He was also always surrounded by stupid scandals pre 2021, be it the submarine pedo (where for some reason I saw people on refdit defending him), him suddenly denying his family had shares on emerald mines, him and all his sex and abuse scandals, it all made news but got forgotten as soon as he pulled an "epic move" like doge coin...
What I said before is regarding his actions and actual contributions to the companies he controls, which is related to why he is do shit at handling twitter as a company, now about his public persona, the tweets he currently posts and why he is hated en mass.
Most his memes have always been reposts, buy the problem is that he now aligns with the far right in the united states, there are many reasons of why this happened and this has been absolutely clear when he daid that shit about Dems being shit now do he moved towards republicans (which is a lie but it's the poiny where the public noticed he is a republican despite him being on the forefront of electric cars), due to his alignment and changes to the poilitical spehere on the US being on the right now means believing a lot of racial conspiracy lies, that environmental change is a lie (which ironically hurts his own business), that January 6 was justified, etc. Elon right now boosts about any and all right wing accounts he ca find by replying "how curious" to the most insane racist meme about the DESPITE BEING 13% meme
I do remember it being more common back when I was in high school, and also there was a movie which mentioned that which could have helped with that
I also havent heard it being said seriously for years though