i think the star wars fandom is a great case study of how right poppulism works.
star wars fans have always been hating on new stuff and in many cases the negative feelings are semi justified (looking at the prequels, clone wars, christmas special, ...)
but blaming capitalism is complicated, and while the quality of star wars media hasnt changed much, it now has a diverse cast and scapegoating disliked minorities is easy.
"get rid of the foreigners, get rid of jewish people, get rid of the queers, get rid of women and it will fix everything"

im sorry, but the clone wars movie is rubbish and so are any of the episodes in the first few seasons that i warched.
i dont doubt that clone wars has better episodes and arcs later on but you cant change my mind that people only like the first seasons because of nostalgia for a time when they didnt know yet whats good.