The ugliness was most reflected in Walter Mondale, who led the fight to dismantle the moon program. He spouted the mantra that the money would be better spent here. This to short-changing the shuttle program, and ultimately our ending of the manned space program under the current administration.
Well Nixon really wounded the shuttle program when he told NASA to go cheaper than the cheap option. Also keep in mind that the shuttle program was designed to have a 20 year lifespan AND NASA wanted at least 15 years (preferably a full 20, the wanted the replacement greenlit right after the first launch) to develop its replacement. So the death of our manned program really starts with Reagan. Obie was little more than the 5th president in a row to not bother to make a decision.