Problem not solved incidentally, a small engagement has resulted in a somewhat inconclusive victory for the GOP.

And politicians generally get along just fine and agree with each other on virtually everything, it's just that the 'virtually everything' after 200 years of legislation has been so throughly decided that day-to-day decisions have been delegated to cabinet or local authority. Most remaining things are still pretty cut and dry and worked out in committee before going up for a real quick vote with overwhelming majority or getting attached and re-attached to other bills until it's on one that passes. So all that leaves Emergencies, generally funding gets passed like 97-0, and new but relatively minor issues that have popped from some new piece of tech/culture shifting the paradigm. Finally, there's the ideological differences, those make good newsfeed, and they are also things people just won't bend on, typically for damn good reason.

To a degree, there is a bit more strife, it's kinda a reality TV Show effect. People used to get their politics in 2 minute helpings on the nightly news with a few editorials in the paper and a couple shows on Sunday morning, now it's 24/7 news with lots of blogs. So that spotlights stuff, but there is an observer effect too. Doing a reality show on something normal tends to make a week's worth of footage get boiled down to an hour, and the typically boil it down to the parts people find interesting, which generally are specifically not 'something normal' and subsequent shows tend to go out of there way to find the abnormal and to cast people who want attention be it good or bad... something very similiar tends to happen in politics, but mostly the answer to 'why can't they just work together?' is "They do, and all you're seeing is the five-minute spat between friends or coworkers in an otherwise uneventful week". C-span, for instance, is generally much more polite, detailed, and informative then CNN, Fox, MSNBC, and the various blogs... but not many people watch it.