I think it was Iran-Contra that took away the fun of conspiracies. The Conspirator (Ollie North) turned into a hero, the Leader of the Free World turned out to be a bumbling doofus who didn't know what was going on, and the Press completely failed to follow through on the links and threads pinned to the walls because every one of them was tied to their advertising revenue. Look over there! Clinton got a blowjob!

Conspiracy theories stopped being fun when we lost factual anchors to fall back on. With Iran-Contra, the corruption became the government, and everyone became a conspirator, all the way down to Joe Six-Pack.

It's just no fun when there isn't anyone who is outside the conspiracies.