One interesting aspect of the pattern is its hysteresis. Once idealism has been successfully co-opted, the resulting organization can continue to siphon that credibility indefinitely, while dismissing its more radical demands.

Not entirely. There is a tendency to spin off movements that take the impractical vision seriously and try to implement it, frequently with disastrous results.

Incidentally, the core neo-reactionary claim is that modern liberalism is just such a spin-off of Christianity.