They could not get a majority of voters to go along with their only core tenet, preventing the rich from paying more taxes. All of the religious and social wedge issues are as you say all about getting more votes. The craziness ramped up against Bill Clinton who came out and said, "we are raising taxes on anyone making over $200,000 a year, speaking the heresy directly.

The Frankenstein they created yearned for a Trump-like candidate before Trump was on the radar. The only silver lining is that Trump through his naked self interest has made it obvious that national security and democracy itself would be sacrificed to keep winning. This has cleaved the republicans into those who still care about those things and those who see them as secondary concerns to the campaign of winning at all costs.