It’s certainly a side-effect of a dysfunctional democracy. I guess you could blame the liberals for pushing the agenda too hard, or the anti-liberals for determining to subvert the liberal consensus. My sense is that it was the latter party which broke the norms of engagement. Staunch conservatives realized that the only way they could possibly prevail against the consensus was to appeal to their potential constituency’s sense of victimhood. Hence the paradox of billionaire tycoons masquerading as populist champions vs “the elites”. It was the only option left, and they had to sell whatever soul they had to pursue it. Liberal over-reach is, in my view, a panic-stricken (and understandable) response to the chauvinism they unleashed.