Hello @lesliedeanbrown
Thank you for your review.
W3 Total Cache is a dev-oriented plugin, which means that it offers a lot of options for the configuration, and is also the most complete optimizing solution.
This being said, I am very sorry that you never opened a support topic about the issue you experienced, or reach out directly as we would be more than happy to assist you with any problem.
What you are describing, may suggest that you used Minify for example, and minified CSS, once any theme or plugin was updated, which had changes in their files, and the name remained the same. In this case, the same file was served to visitors because the name was the same and it was cached in the Browser Cache, and there is a simple solution for this, and it’s called “Prevent caching of objects after settings change”.
Again since you have not opened a support thread, this is just my guess. WordPress and PHP are constantly upgrading and changing, meaning the themes, and plugins are updated also. Therefore, you should always address the settings in the optimization plugins, especially the kind of plugin with so many options for the freedom of the optimization as W3 Total Cache.
I would suggest to consider and re-install the plugin if it’s removed and let us know via the plugin contact form or the support thread the details of the issue you are experiencing so we can assist you with tweaking the settings.
Thanks!