I'm going to take a rosier view of prescriptivists and say they are a necessary part of the speaking/writing public, doing the valuable work of fighting entropic forces to prevent making our language dumb. They don't always need to win or be right.

That's the first time I've seen literally-as-figuratively defended from a historical perspective. I still think we'd all be better off if people didn't mindlessly use it as a filler word or for emphasis, which is generally what people are doing these days that is the source of controversy, not reviving an archaic usage.

Also, it's kind of ironic you corrected my use of "devolves", where many would accept it. :)