To be sure, there are undoubtedly other forces at play as well. And, as you note, any leader - military especially but even in business - must know the breaking point of a group and materials, and how close you can come (if you have to) to that point. If leadership simply goes beyond the breaking point over and over again, eventually it catches up.
Tailhook had fallout, even outside aviation. It wasted a lot of time on diversity/sensitivity training, which meant the men had less time for useful training, maintenance, and rest. I don't believe the training affected behavior among submariners at all, whether aboard our (then) all-female subs or when my men were ashore.
The threat of career-ending prosecutions had an effect - men avoiding all interactions with Navy women when possible, or walking on eggshells around women when interaction was necessary. That helped some women to avoid the rude/crude behaviors that had been common, but it also meant at times it was harder for them to hear what they needed to hear expressed as clearly as the men heard it. There were a few women so hypersensitive that I avoided them, but very few.
Note: I on occasion stopped the gratuitous abuse in shore commands. I also often ignored it, even when it was extremely gross. My standard was that if someone (that particular individual or the typical person in that position) would say the same thing to a man, I was okay with it around a woman, or stopped it whether the target was a man or a woman. If women were being singled out in the workplace, I stopped it.