The question is: what is ''normal'' society? A lunar adventurer in Sartar will be outside of ''normal'' barbarian society but will be inside ''normal'' lunar society. Most adventuring occurs when different social strata overlap. Other examples: a nobleman in an 'adventure' set in the lowest classes; an human merchant (maybe Issaries or Etyries) 'adventuring' into troll lands for commerce.
Of course, my examples have nothing to do with your 'heroic' type of adventuring.
> In gaming, a GM should make it very clear to the characters that their
> powers and lifestyles have put them outside of society, (...) No hard
feelings
> but they are just too disruptive to the good people
Why? Most adventurers are not adventurers all the time. They only go on adventuring when they need or can profit from it. The best adventurers are an adventurer now, a merchant next, a criminal latter, etc. They can become part of the political mainstay of society (Francis Drake became 'Sir' Francis Drake) only to be outcasts if they do the wrong choices. And they can be all of that at the same time for different parts of society. What makes them different is not if they are part of the normal society or not: most of the time normal society is either pressing them to become part of normal society when they are powerful, or trying to push them outside of society when they are not powerful enough (''go away or we'll make you go to hell''). What makes them different is not the response of society for them but their response to society: they are to restless, to free to stop.
> and the children are getting some bad examples.
This 20th century western RW blah, blah. Who said that the relations between parents and children and that educational standards in Glorantha move along these lines?
> Even if the adventurers desire to settle down, they may not be allowed to
> for fear of the disruption that they might cause. After a certain point,
most
> adventurers will have so little in common with the rest of society that
they
> wont even want to interact with the mainstream, there are just too few
points
> of contact.
This is GM's problem: make them have some 'bad' experiences because they feel so detached from society and you will see how eager they are to become some more of the mainstream. As I said before, most adventurers only feel above the flock when they think they belong to an even better flock (Drake didn't want to become an indian or a polynesian since he was an englishman - - and everybody knew that there wasn't better thing to be, of course. Hawkwood was a mercenary above all in a time in Italy when the power was on the hands of mercenaries - and when the powerful were supposed to be powerful by force, not by friendship, just look at Machiavel's Prince).
> Individuals who develop personal power too quickly, or threaten the
> status quo are often alienated by the power structure.
It's up to them to understand how politics operate. If they fail, don't pity them. Good adventurers know how to, and usualy are also great politicians.
Best,
Sergio
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