Only 30 years ago, but I think I see most of what I talked about:
1988 free trade debate:
http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/26537090091984 election debate:
http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2653708170Observations:
The tone is more formal, boring, "you, sir, owe the people...", but still civil ; Turner expresses admiration for Mulroney's father (patriarchy LOLZ)
Perhaps more substance, or more reference to boring topics;
No rabble-rousing on either side;
The issues described did not all come to pass;
The idea of inflammatory YouTube videos seems absolutely anachronistic, futuristic, even advanced.
So instead of falling into the trap of moralizing, I will say that politics has taken a step towards relevance by making the debate more "entertaining". The missing link between the 1980s and today include:
CNN Crossfire, the pro-wrestling-show equivalent of panel politics from the 1990s
FOX News
Conspiracy Politics, birtherism
Webbots, Memes, and Fake News
And then we arrive back where politics was in the early/mid 20th century in America. I am looking fondly back at a time after that, though, which may not have actually existed because there was massive organizational change.
That, I believe, IS real. The changes that came from the 1930s to the 1960s or so were massive and I associate that with the politics of the era. Is it 'better' ? I don't know, but it did set the table for such changes to come in. By the 1970s and 1980s the pushback was under way.
Now, I think the time has come to build again, to re-engineer government. Our discussion sphere currently isn't up to the task for supporting such a change, or maybe a complete breakage will come soon and rebuilding will have to happen.