I grant there was always a “I-want-to-do-what-want-to-do!-What-consequences?” element in the party. In the past they were always balanced out by the Von Mises wing. Of course, the Von Mises wing never seemed to recognize that, that wing was holding them back; damaging their economic arguments by association.
The other problem is Libertarianism always assumes people are rational actors. They’re not!
The party never changed, if you mean they were “balanced” by some members with different personal irrelevant opinions then fine, but the official party positions and goals remained the same.
Libertarians are irrational nut cases, what makes you think they think that other people are rational?
Do you think the LP immigration platform has rational all these decades?