When one reads stories of the old Chasidim, from the Baal Shem Tov through the first few generations, the impression one is left with is of a movement very different from the Chasidim of today. Specifically, Chasidim today are, across the board, associated with a level of stringency equalling if not exceeding that of other movements within Torah Judaism.
Where a Chosid of old might have considered himself to have davened Shacharis by going out into a forest for heartfelt conversation with G-d (R' Zisha, according to Buber's "Tales of the Hasidim") or sobbing into the paroches for five minutes at 2PM (told by R' Shlomo z'l about a Kotzker Chosid), this kind of behavior would be unthinkable in any Chasidic community today.
Was there a focal point at which the Chasidic movement re-aligned itself with the orthodoxy from which it originally sought to break? If Chasidus was an attempt to revive Judaism and free it from the excessive legalism and stringency that dominated Ashkenazi Jewry until then, what caused it to apparently fall in to the same trap?
Having written this question, I now want to stress that I don't think immersion in stringency and legalism is a trap. Rather, it is a legitimate expression of Judaism. I'm just trying to better understand how and why Chasidus came back around to that which it seems to have originally been striving against.
Answer
Each generation of Chassidus had a different purpose. The Baal Shem Tov connected to the simple Jew, to show him or her that just because they are not learned in Torah doesn't mean that they don't have a connection to G-d. He traveled around Europe encouraging the Jewish people and waking them up from a spiritual slumber. The Maggid of Mezritch did not travel, instead he surrounded himself with an inner circle of tzaddikim to map out a spiritual plan to revive Jewish spiritual life. If the early Chassidim were not concerned with halacha but instead with a forest meditation, why would the Maggid ask the Alter Rebbe of Chabad to compile a Shulchan Aruch? Why would Rebbe Nachman, who is one of the biggest supporters of forest meditation, write that a Jew must learn Gemara and Shulchan Aruch?
IMHO the Chassidim experienced unbelievable success. Generations later those simple Jews have decedents that are Rabbis and Talmidei HaChamim. The movement has translated and printed more literature that helps one connect to G-d than ever before in history.
Most Chassidim today do not live near forests, and while Chabad and Breslov stress meditation, the rest of the Chassidim took the route of living a strict Torah life.
Most of the "Chumrahs and Stringencies" that we have today, come from those generations; they were not made up in America or Israel.
I agree that Chassidus has changed, mostly due to a mass uprooting of the Chassidic world, with millions being burned alive and the survivors moving across the world to America or Israel. Communities merged and completely absorbed each other.
Chassidus never sought to "break away from" Orthodoxy. It sought to give the non-elite a chance to live that Torah life that was locked away by the elite. The Chassidim wanted all Jews to be learned in Hashem's Torah which the Tanya quotes as being literally the "will of Hashem" and by learning it you connect to Hashem on an unbelievable level.
I agree that the spiritual vibrancy of Chassidus of old has left the movement, but IMHO you can thank the Holocaust for part of that. While WWI and the Industrial Revolution had devastating effects on European Jewry, it did not systematically destroy entire Chassidic Courts. The result of WWII is that a Satmar Chasid now was living next to Sephardim, Polish Chassidim, Litvaks and other Jews that never before had been the case. As the Rambam says in Hilchos Deos; You are product of your environment. Chassidim were now influenced by each other and other streams in Orthodox Judaism. Now 60 years later we are seeing the results of this.
Chassidus Chabad and Chassidus Breslov took some of your concerns and transformed them into what is known today as the "kiruv" movement which seeks to bring back Jewish souls to Hashem and the Torah.
Some might disagree, but Chabad Chassidus is the foundation of the "Kiruv" Movement, which is what some might consider to be a revival of the original vision of the Baal Shem Tov.
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