One hypothesis is that they're political chameleons... they felt the political winds changing and are moving with them.

Another hypothesis is that they were much more free-market and libertarian all along, but were willing to give DEI/the wokies a chance, (or didn't want to rock the boat given that the young staff are predominantly woke), ... but finally decided that enough is enough.

There may be an element of both. Even within the university, I can certainly sense that more and more people are getting fed up with the wokies, having nothing to do with national politics.