If you think this is just about ideological possession it's not.  Even someone like Jordan Peterson didn't speak up until they came after his research into sex differences, DIE was a threat to his personal interests and by extension life's work.  The same is true for these other professors in reverse to some extent.  They know that conservative would defund a lot of them.  Same is true of the "deep state''.  It's true of a lot of people who you would think would be conservative because they have made a lot of money, either directly or indirectly in pension funds, through the breaking up of companies and exporting pollution and slave labor to china.  Even large companies know that conservative would enforce antitrust laws to keep capitalism healthy.  The banks and other financial industries know conservatives would not have bailed them out.  You can follow the money down to fairly ordinary people.  The people that didn't benefit, especially the working class, are the new conservatives.  When the democrats were putting money in their pockets through labor unions etc. they were ok with "socialism".  The poor know that welfare would be cut by conservatives.  

If you want to know why environmentalism isn't linked to conservation there is a similar explanation.  If conservation took hold a lot of environmentalists would lose their jobs and political funding.  If the focus on education was actually on education a lot of administrators would lose their jobs and schools would be made more efficient in general.   If conservative were in charge, colleges wouldn't be "resorts" and student loans would only be given to people who will make a difference in the economy.

It turns out that real conservatism isn't good for anyone except the country.  It's one of the reasons patriotism is under attack.  Even someone like Tucker Carlson is hostile to "populism".  Populism properly understood is the natural patriotism of the poor, working classes, and anyone else who by nature understands that they are dependent on a healthy society.  Upper classes have the resources to avoid the worst consequences of an unhealthy society.  It's why they don't care about the basic infrastructure that ordinary people depend on.  It's why in recent years the amount of money spent on airports is out of proportion to what is spent on roads.  It's why bankerism is very seldom the focus of any economic discussion.   The people who care about it are the people who don't benefit.  

It's why the upper classes don't care about inflation.  If you make $200,000 a year and the price of gas doubles raising your annual cost from $2,000 to $4,000 that is a 1 percent increase in your cost of living. If you make $50,000 and use the same amount of gas it is a 4 percent increase in your cost of living. The cost of inflation is unevenly divided because the same principle applies to all necessities. This reality shapes the politics around class divisions.

Follow the money may seem unsophisticated but in reality it's always a good place to start if you want to understand social dynamics.  It's definitely a barrier to the restoration of conservative values. You are not going to sell conservatism on the idea of the economic engine of capitalism. Capitalism is actually a very hard sell. You have to look at what people do not what they say. For example if you believe in capitalism you also have to believe in antitrust laws. People don't like complicated explanations that make them think about how they benefit at the expense of society as a whole.