There's a concept called Flanderization in media. Basically it works like this. Ned Flanders from the Simpsons in season 1 is just an overly friendly neighbor who is a little annoying in his politeness. He's a foil for Homer, but otherwise a pretty normal dude. By season 15, he's a Jesus freak hypochondriac, neurotic mess. Step by step his funny or unusual qualities got exaggerated u til they took over the character. Which as you pointed out is what happened to a lot of characters here.
What most people don't realize is that the line between Flanderization and character development is razor thin. Now Becky for example. Was she always kind of okay but kind of awful? Or was she always a shit bag, but we didn't realize it. Maybe she had this depth (ironic cause she's so shallow) all along and we only saw the surface. On the surface she's pretty, kind of funny and a little bitchy. I know a lot of girls like that. Some turn out to be really fun, cool people, and some turn out to be Beckies. Nothing she did I'm Ep 9 was out of character, it's just that she doesn't really have any redeeming qualities or REASON to act like this, this is all she is. She's surface all the way down.
Now the jocks are another interesting case. I'll reference Avatar the Last Airbender (and date myself horribly). There was an antagonist in the first season called Zuko. He was complicated and deep, and a threat to the main character, however his story was his own. He wasn't just and villain, he was more of an antagonist. An opposing force. One season of character development later, he was no longer suitable as a main bad guy. Not just because a significant portion of the show was now dedicated to his story, but also because the main character had grown beyond him in power and he simply wasn't a threat. And so another, stronger antagonist called Azula was brought it to be the main opponent.
The jocks we're good opponents in season 1 and 2, they had money, girls, institutional power and physical power. But at this point, the MC has more cash on hand than most college kids, leads his own Frat, every girl in the school wants him and if your anything like me, you've given a beat down to every single Alpha. Simply putz they are no longer threatening, cause you already won. And so new antagonists must be brought in. Caleb the Uber-Jock, Vinny the criminal, Burke the college administrator with power over ALL the girls your able to date.*
Now what some writers also fail at is that all stories MUST be temporary**. By it's very nature a story must have a beginning middle and end. With long form media (ie not a two hour film or single novel or short video game like Portal 1), the artist must balance the antagonist(s) against the length of the story. A good antagonist can't be too strong or weak. If they are multiple, the main antagonist must be brought in at the proper time and the weaker ones must be defeated or recruited in their proper times.
L let's go back to Avatar (you really need to watch it, it's incredibly well written). Imagine if the protagonist kept having to fight Zuko over and over again despite already beating him soundly many times over (or the new star wars with Rey and Kylo Ren if you will). There's no threat there. The story has no weight, no tension. Will will our hero win again ....after winning the last six times????
Yes.
Obviously.
But if your story is too long, or you don't plan well, this is a problem you run into. Characters are forced into roles because SOMEONE has to do it. It's why stories need to end early, even as much as we don't want them too, with some questions unanswered and some paths untraveled. So in that spirit I don't mind the jocks being comedic relief now. It's better than pretending they are still a threat.
Anyway, this turned out waaaaaway longer than I thought it would. Sorry.
*Caleb is the physical threat, Burke the institutional, Vinny I'm not sure. And no idea which if any is the main antagonist.
** Except for The never ending story!
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