Remember, Reagan wasn't after Nixon, nor was he after Ford. This gets into economics so bear with me...
The USA only half implemented Keynesian Economic policies, due to the Cold War. For example, one policy is to RAISE taxes during war time, as it discourages military adventurism and forces government to focus more on infrastructure. But due to the Cold War, we were partaking in many open and covert proxy wars....so, they didn't go through with everything.
Ultimately, it led to stagflation, inflation with no economic growth...simply implementing the rest of Keynesian polices would have probably ended it....but then, it also ends a lot of military/CIA operations eventually as big budget military doesn't work under Keynesian economics. Damned if you do, damned if you don't as the way they saw it.
The Ford Admin, just threw its hand up...and printed buttons that said WIN (Whip Inflation Now)...but absolutely no policy to end it. So naturally Carter steam rolled over him (of course, the stench of Nixon didn't help either), but he ran into the same quagmire. But then it got worse, Iran, the Oil Crisis (thanks House Saud), a botched military rescue for the hostages, etc. Then it didn't help that Carter (though he was probably right) talked down on the public for basically being spoiled brats.
In walks in Reagan, with a message of optimism that people had been yearning for a long while. After he wins, he adopts Monetarism....to a point (Volkner triggers a recession ASAP so the economy can return to normal before the election), he is still pragmatic. Nor is Reagan a social conservative, this is the guy who legalized abortion in California which may have influenced the ultimate legalization across the country in the SC. As President, gave amnesty to illegal aliens....and he sure as hell wasn't a right wing religious nut, particularly given his wife Nancy's astrology habits. Was he a racist, yeah, but most 70 year old people at that time were....so you have to examine it in context. Not ideal, but none the less, what it was.
Monetarism allows for big military expenditures and drops the pitfalls of Keynesian Economics....only problem is, it leads to income inequality over the long term...and deficits.
So in walks in Mondale, and he says "I'll raise taxes and Reagan will raise taxes"....which kills him in the election. But you know what, he spoke the truth as Reagan jacked the taxes way in the fuck up there.
Enter G.H.W.B, heir apparent. Not exactly too popular as Dole thought he could challenge him. The guy has no connection to the average Joe like Reagan did (its why he lost to Clinton). But he was riding on the coat tails of Reagan (interestingly, Reagan didn't campaign for him very much). And he was more conservative than Reagan, yes I know, this goes contrary to most of DU thinks, but bear with me. He was against Reagan's "voodoo economics" at first....but when he saw Monetarism allowed for military adventurism without creating inflation (and the damage would be someone else's problem later)...he adopted it. And Bush was a moderate social conservative, a far cry from Reagan (Gingrich created the mythology of Reagan vs. the reality....I really hate that self serving bastard).
Ultimately, Economic Conservatism (Monetarism) had gotten the country out of stagflation and despite the nasty recession early in Reagan's term, the economy roared back and kept going for awhile. People were content, they may have had a bit of trouble of affording some things, but it sure beat waiting in a line to get gas on certain days based on your license plate number. And the military was something to be proud of again as well. And I could go on, there is no one factor, such as the fact the Mob infiltrated many of the Unions and they were getting bad press, etc.
Ultimately Dukakis should have just took a pass on the run. The party needed more of a moderate to have a chance to win and Bush was defeatable. He managed to paint himself as a moderate for awhile, but it eventually all caught up to him. And his campaign didn't have a message to sell either as a liberal. I'm reminded of the Naked Gun movies, in one scene there is a wall of photographs of disasters...and Dukakis is one of them.
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