... Polarization has helped turn the filibuster into an almost unchecked demand for 60 votes on any question. In 1979, there were four cloture votes; this year, there already have been more than five times that number.
Politico's David Rogers has a nice piece of analysis of the "lost" Senate today -- certainly not the Senate of the past. The Senate, which was supposed to be the "cooling saucer" of government, is now just as partisan and badly behaved as elsewhere. No more polite negotiations.
“People say the Senate is a club. The Senate couldn’t be further removed from a club today,” former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota tells Politico. “Because we can’t bond, we can’t trust. Because we can’t trust, we can’t cooperate. Because we can’t cooperate, we become dysfunctional.”