The original “agudah” in the early 1900’s was an unprecedented event on a societal level in galus. The changes that were proposed and implemented there are obvious to any unbiased thinker.
The holocaust and communication technologies caused a previously impossible centralization of authorities.
There’s a reason why the “haskalah” became “less of a nissayon”.
As to whether the people who quote the Gra besht and Reb yisroel salanter, are fully accurate, is an interesting question.
These great men were a part of a much larger plethora of social “orthodoxy” (formerly called Judaism in years past).