Glamour cannot exist without personal social envy being a common and widespread emotion. The industrial society. . . recognises nothing except the power to acquire. . . No other kind of hope or satisfaction or pleasure can any longer be envisaged within the culture of capitalism.
We've had periods of meanness in American politics. Actually, the dawn of partisan division in America was basically in George Washington's second term, when it was obvious that he would be the first and only consensus president.