Somebody remind me, when was American politics a paragon of civility and decency? Not during the Cold War, when the one side insisted the other was determined to blow up the planet and the other insisted the first was collaborating to betray the country to the Communists. Not during the Nixon administration when one side was calling returning troops baby-killers and the other was breaking into the other side's campaign headquarters. Not during the Clinton administration, when the Bogus Conspiracy Industrial Complex kicked off with the totally Whitewatergate thing. Not during the Bush administration, when the "not my President" meme had its birth. 

OK, now I remember. For about ten months, during the GHW Bush administration, things were relatively civil. Then Ross Perot decided what we really needed was a President who didn't know a darn thing about being President. 

Politics was never a civility-fest. The cameras just used to be too heavy to carry around everywhere all the time.