I don't know if macademe was responsible for creating that atmosphere... I don't think so. I don't know of any current mods who stuck up for her behavior at the time. I think some of them would be shocked to think that they are straying into Academe's realm. They don't see it. I saw a noticeable change in mod behavior after Steve (admin Steve) began taking a more active role in the modding world.
He began to personally delete threads and posts that under his own earlier edicts would have been safegaurded. Deleting posts because someone just rubs you the wrong way is always a bad sign. So much for his "if it doesn't fall into X category, LEAVE IT UP!" rule. Instructing mods not to explain any of our actions to users and to essentially ignore all complaints about our judgement also set the tone for the current mod squad. I don't mean to beat a dead horse, but a complete lack of accountability naturally leads to abuse.
Steve's biggest blunder was to provide mods with an excuse to give in to that tugging temptation to allow ego, rather than policy to drive decision-making. When you see a manager (and that is in effect what Steve is) brazenly violating policy and promoting the idea that users just aren't worth talking to, shit happens.
I don't know how having access to a simple delete function affects one's psychology and self perception. And I don't know how people you've known almost as "friends" can change so drastically as to become unrecognizable. 
They are still the same people, except when they're modding.
And some of the mods have actually done a pretty good job. Despite what Orik said, I think X is an outstanding mod. If he had Steve's job I sort of doubt we would be having this conversation.
