That the community as a whole has matured and in some ways become more tight-knit. A lot changes in seven years. There are a whole lot less callouts... maybe many of the people who needed empowering are now suitably empowered? We still don't have whining kids ala WrongPlanet, but we also don't have the same degree of hostility towards any form of weakness that was happening back then. There's been space to ease up.
Administration is stricter and less tolerant of bullshit. There used to be raging debates over what, if anything, was a suitable banning offense. It used to be interesting to cause trouble. Now, not so much.
The hoopla over cliques has also pretty much died. I don't know if that's more or less empowering than when there were obvious factions.