Yeah it could be a circular cause/effect thing, where South Park would be the expression of a transformation, an expression which administers and informs the transformation itself.
(edit: similar, at all, to how a managerial layer emerges from a more undiffentiated labor force, in the interest of optimizing productivity? Similar in that an emergent effect of a transformation can function to optimize, define, or even hasten the transformation?)
And yeah I don't think we ought to credit the show for such a shift, but perhaps it was among the foremost expressions of that shift, one the the first expressions that more or less cohesively and tangibly gave a voice to an undetermined, unformed body.
From what I remember from the show, it seemed like it had an awareness of issues without feeling compelled to rectify or solve them. But perhaps that is a broader element of satire, pointing out the farce and leaving the solution open-ended?
How does the troll relate to the trickster? Is the troll the postmodern incarnation of the trickster?