But the lack of bipartisanship is not all about Republicans. Using the filibuster as a way to thwart the party in power is a practice that was normalized by then-Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid during the George W. Bush years.
And while Democrats have traditionally been more likely to believe in the importance of compromise over sticking to beliefs, even that seems to be changing. Pew found in a survey in April of this year that the longstanding gap on compromise had completely disappeared since July 2017.
Whether that's a short-term product of opposition to Trump or an indication of something bigger is not clear yet. But progressives have grown increasingly frustrated with Democratic leaders.
The energy in the party isn't with centrism, it's with the economic populism of independent Sen. Bernie Sanders and congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. The progressive wing has, in many ways, changed the narrative on the left and younger candidates are far less compromising.
Where that leads, no one knows for sure yet. But the results are already being seen the shutting down of the government, a lack of productivity and a level of acrimony and partisanship that is as high as it has been than at any time since the Civil War.
"I think that the political environment today is dominated by a desire to win," Carrillo said. "And I think that some of the most dynamic leaders have been those who have seen politics as a way of addressing ideals that are broader, that exceed one's mere self-interest. And I think that there's been a change in that regard."
It's not just legislating, though, it's society. Americans have sorted themselves by everything from place to their a la carte consumption of news and social media to even whom they want their children to marry.
From 1994 to 2014, the number of Americans who said they are consistently conservative or consistently liberal doubled, according to the Pew Research Center. And more people are going so far as to say the other party's policies "threaten the nation's well-being," Pew also found.
To put it plainly: Nothing divides Americans like politics and it wasn't always that way.
One explanation for why partisanship has gotten as bad as it has is that lawmakers feel pressure to get home to their states and districts. They don't stick around Washington, D.C., to get to know one another on a personal level as much anymore, more easily reducing the other side to caricatures.
During her time in the Senate, Hillary Clinton became friends with McCain. They traveled together and got to know each other. They even engaged in a vodka shots contest together in a now-famous 2004 trip to Tallinn, Estonia.
"I would not take credit for it," Clinton told CNN on Sunday. "I think it was a mutually agreed-upon venture, but we used to say, 'What happens in Tallinn, stays in Tallinn.'"
Clinton revealed something more, however. "During those long, long flights," she said, "we had a lot of time to talk. We talked about the unfairness that sometimes infects our politics. If you were his friend, he would stand up for you, he would defend you. He didn't like the personal attacks that went along with politics that became increasingly common."
But voters aren't rewarding that kind of across-the-aisle relationship building. Quite the opposite. Becoming part of Washington and embracing the other side has cost more than one elected official their job.