Note also: 'classical liberal' has been an attempt to clarify/brand a certain viewpoint for decades, as the US label of 'liberal' has drifted from what it previ

Note also: 'classical liberal' has been an attempt to clarify/brand a certain viewpoint for decades, as the US label of 'liberal' has drifted from what it previously meant. So I suspect your observation about the "last few years" is more a reflection of the evolution of your specific info-environment, & rhetoric consumption, than a broader trend. For example, Google books show it rising from nothing before the 1930s 'New Deal' era (of massive new government economic interventions), to a steep growth in the 1980s (Reaganism etc), starting to plateau in the 20X0s: https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=classical+liberal&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=3&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cclassical%20liberal%3B%2Cc0#t1%3B%2Cclassical%20liberal%3B%2Cc0 https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=classical+libe... Search trends show interest in finding out what it is roughly stable since 2004: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=%22classical%20liberal%22 https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&geo=US&q=%... In the late 1800s, 'liberal' overwhelmingly meant in favor of free trade, less government involvement in running or regulating private enterprises, & free speech – not especially "liberal" policies in present US politics. (Though, in late 20thC, US 'liberals' were still among the strongest free-speech advocates.) But in the UK & some very-left circles, 'liberal' still has some of those meanings – compared to more radical leftism, for sure – but is often labelled (or slurred) as 'neoliberal'.