According to some that knew him, he's been broken long before that. Notably his first wife basically described exactly the man we are seeing long before that incident, but no one really took that in at the time. Even before they split up, saw a video about him taking delivery of one of his first rich person cars and on the video she already clearly thought this was some stupid bullshit.

Before folks were able to curate his public image and moderate his "creative input". He was seen as a crucial brand to maintain and powerful folks were eager to maintain the "real life Tony Stark" concept. Those are the guardrails that have worn out.