Nah, at this point I suspect the Martians actually felt threatened by the progress SpaceX made, and switched Musk for a lookalike, in order to stop the Mars mission
and kick us around a bit for good measure, so humanity is looking inwards worried about geopolitical stability, instead of continuing to advance.
I mean, given how he went 180 on everything almost instantly, that's one of the most plausible explanations.