Interesting article on Hassidic Rebbes of old who expressed the idea that the Hassidic revolution had already ended, in one way or another. Among them some of the greatest Chasidic leaders, such as R. Shlomo Zalman of Kapust/Habad, R. Chaim Halberstam of Sanz, the Divrei Chaim, and R. Shalom Rokeach, the Sar Shalom of Belz.
So when the Satmar Rebbe, R. Joel Teitelbaum (-5739/1979), the Divrei Yoel, famously remarked more recently that נשתכחה תורת הבעל שם טוב, the Toras HaBaal Shem Tov has been forgotten, he was not breaking entirely new ground.
