To play devil's advocate I've been a moderator on a forum before (not a very busy forum, but you still get forum drama) and I'd say there are a few different approaches to power.

You'll have a mother hen, someone who's stuck with things since they were small and has a sense of scope. They understand that their users are important but they're also wary of letting everything go tits up on accord of a few bad eggs. They're basically your average parent. They care, but they're human. There's usually at least one of these, grows with scope.

Then you have your general task force. They're normally above average users when it comes to activity and quality content, and so get given the ability to tend to their favourite places. They have ideas but they don't want to rock the boat, and normally stay out of the forum drama as best they can. It's a hobby to them, when shit hits the fan they just go do something else unless it is directly their business to deal with it.

Then you've got your bad eggs. They're like your general task force but they've usually been around a little longer (so the hens aren't as harsh as they would be to others) or a little shorter ("give them a little more time"). They don't understand the difference between being right and doing what's right and the end result is they just do not see when they're wrong unless a higher up tells them.

So when a bad egg stirs things up, the hen looks to the whole team for guidance (because the hen is wary of becoming some corrupt authoritarian) while most of the task force just kind of checks out. The only people left are the people that like the drama, normally your bad eggs, and they pick sides and schism. The hen makes a call, the flock come back, and then the confusion starts. The most level headed members of the team just trust that the right thing will happen without their input, so when the bad eggs convince the hen to make the wrong choice it leaves the task force disappointed in how things are ran and just kind of ashamed at the drama in general. The bad eggs are revelling in the drama. This cycle generally continues until your average mod checks out because management has degraded into a shouting match, while the bad eggs just get louder. Over time the ratio skews until it's almost all bad eggs and the userbase dwindles and you have a very confused and upset hen trying to reign in a bunch of bullies over the now comparably tiny userbase.

Tldr: a loud minority are tyrants, and when they are most needed it is the silence of good people that allows their voice to grow.