No change to speak of. Coal has had many ups and many downs. WV has had great years for coal employment, and horrible years. It’s cycle that has been repeated for generations.
Endemic in WV is horrible and uninspired leadership. Sometimes it has been republican, but more often than not, democratic. The main issue has always been that the state government is corrupt and has been since statehood in the 1830s. WV is (probably next to Illinois) one of the best bought statehouses in America.
(By the way, I lived there for three years. This is based on my experience.)
The major issue with WV is that the panhandle has educated and ambitious people who work largely in white collar jobs, and the rest of the state is far less educated and generally works in agriculture, mining, and other blue collar jobs. (And there are a fair number of ex-hippies blowing glass and spinning pottery (and growing drugs) in the hollers as well.)
The political clout of the panhandle population is way overwhelmed by the yahoos from the other side of the state.