The spiral you’re talking about has been discussed from both sides over and over, and over and over - again.
People who liked them are p’sd.
People who did not like them are glad to see them go. It’s over. But ultimately they decided they were going.
You can say it's over, and it may be in some ways, maybe the attack jackals are called off. But what happened can't be undone. The damage has yet to be assessed and I doubt the tide has completely ebbed. It won't become clear for some time what freerepublic has morphed into. Some ugly elements have achieved a prominence here that they hadn't before. It's not to FR's credit, which is a shame, since FR was becoming a real force in American politics.
As for those who decided to leave, not all by a long shot were Rudy people. But it's hard to blame them for making the choice they did.