In my lifetime (I'm pretty old), it became the same in what was became the conservative movement. It was clearly defined as small federal government (the least possible, re: "God and Man at Yale" - constitutional republic, rule of law, liberty, freedom (including freedom to fail).
Economically it was espoused best by Milton Friedman and Thomas Sowell.
This was about the time of Buckley, Goldwater, Reagan. This set of ideas, politics was what the conservative movement coalesced behind, what unified it and gave it strength, its truth.
If we lose, or have lost this; if we can no longer even define it or agree on the basics, we will have lost a great deal.
What you have described in your post is taught almost nowhere in this country.
It may well even be absolutely nowhere.
There are essentially no sources transferring that knowledge into the next generations.
There are seemingly endless sources transferring the opposing philosophy, schools at all levels, media you name it.
If a young mind is fertile soil, whoever plants their seeds first controls what the field becomes. The people who are getting there first certainly are not planting the seeds of conservatism.
Considering this, what do you think the future of this country holds?
BTTT!