The source I read painted the Adkison years as nonstop bacchanalia.
That source is perhaps exaggerating a bit, but that assessment is broadly accurate.
Basically what happened was there was an event that could best be described "company cookout and bizarre sexual harassment weekend" and the corporate types leveraged the original owners' vices' against them, offering them cushy Stan-Lee-like buyouts to go away in exchange for complete control.
I always have mixed feeling about that. The game has lost much of it's early charm (and no 'charm' is not a codeword for 'broken mistakes and terrible cards'), has become very formulaic, and WotC is not above some rather blatant cashing in.
However, grumbling about this set or that set aside, the game is still fun to play and survives and prospers to this day because of very careful management and a sensible focus on the bottom line.