He fired his PR team at Tesla[0] who were doing a sterling job of polishing a turd. Since then he has been more obviously a dope-addled con manchild.
[0] https://electrek.co/2020/10/06/tesla-dissolves-pr-department...
[0] https://electrek.co/2020/10/06/tesla-dissolves-pr-department...
He's always been a piece of shit, it's just that the last several years he's been a far more obvious piece of shit.