There absolutely was. I highly recommend watching the Gore Vidal vs William Buckley Jr debates. Both Vidal and Buckley were extremely well spoken and reasoned in their arguments. I wonder if Buckley and Goldwater are weeping over Trump as their political successor.

I'm not talking about the political actors, I'm talking about the electorate. To some degree, the politicians will do what resonates. The difference is that for most of our history you pretty much had to be a gentleman to even consider the senate or presidency. (I mean that classically, not in the misogynistic sense.) It was probably Bill Clinton and then Trump that have demonstrated that the masses will gladly elect a non-gentleman and Trump has really leaned in to the lowest common denominator politics. That combined with self-selecting media. It's potent. You basically can distill the different tribal voices down to a vote for socialism or a vote for racism and it's sad to say but it worked pretty damn well and we had one of the biggest turnouts ever.

Perhaps. I'm not sure because I haven't seen enough research on this point, but I do find it plausible that as the barrier to entry has lowered, the gentility of the candidates has decreased. Thanks for the food for thought.