>social conservatives still have power
one of the fundamental tasks of political management is finding a way to disengage them from politics or force them to engage exclusively on other issues. you can make an intellectual case for basically any mode of economic organisation (and competing cases can be strengthened through debate, in theory.) while social conservatism is just low-openness personality flaws suited only to the pursuit of stagnation and oppression.
There will always be people who are social conservatives relative to the times though