I joined around the same time you did and for sure, there used to be a lot of more politically astute posters here. Now it seems like every other thread is a religion thread. And that isn't even counting the folks that post religious responses on totally secular threads. FR has attracted, over the years, the demographic that eats, drinks, walks and sleeps religion 24/7. Not a secular thought in their head, and thoroughly incapable of formulating an opinion or argument outside that context.
You know, these things kind of creep up over the years without one realizing it. It was only a year ago that I thought “where are all the book clubs on FR?” I remember when we used to read books together. Even the cooking thread is a shadow of its former self. Not that I blame the religious threads for pushing them out of the way.