Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. BuzzFeed, the defining American digital media empire of the Obama years, now stands as an unrecognizable, rotted husk of its former self. In the decade that has passed since the peak of its influence, the iconic company has laid off thousands of staffers, shuttered its News division, undergone a disastrous SPAC-fueled public offering, acquired competitors like Complex and HuffPost only to strip them for parts, and shed all the kingmaking clout that allowed it to catapult myriad reporters, comedians,…