Was the initial starting randomization removed by a recent patch?
Over the past couple days I started a couple games and noticed that both the initial councilor's have the exact same stats/profession/traits/origin, the same holds true for the pool of available councilors, and the initial UFO crash site.
I didn't see anything in the patch notes about this.
Edit: Starting a game as a new faction then returning to original faction seems to have changed the start, but is that intended?