Another consideration perhaps too horrible to contemplate:
Maybe the "takeover" wasn't all bad!
I am not a liberal (to paraphrase R. Nixon), & I recognize that
some of the ideas that get lumped together as "liberalism" have done a
lot of damage to the Church. Liberal beliefs (or non-beliefs) about
christology & the authority of Scripture have been disastrous. At the
same time, the removal of all "liberal" influences would have us all
being YECs & thinking that the 4 gospels are the day-to-day diaries of
Jesus' disciples. Some might be happy with that. I think it would be
crazy.
In my own Lutheran tradition, I have a certain nuanced respect
for the Wisconsin Synod. There is not the slightest trace of liberalism
there. It is stauch old confessional Lutheranism which has worked out
the single correct answer to all theological questions. But they are
like people in a time warp, stuck forever in 1580. I think we have
learned some things, both in science & in theology, since then.
George Murphy