It's not that they lost touch with middle America,it's the fact that middle America finds corrupt,pompous pricks to be unappealing.
This kind of stuff is dangerous. It's how Clinton won - and, for that matter, a large part of how people like Tony Blair and Canada's Liberals won too.
"Childhood obesity", "cancer", and all the rest of it are things which matter, but which most conservatives geniunely think are up to individuals, not the government. Sadly, most of them are too gutless to make the case for that - so, instead, they get outflanked by the left on these issues.
The left (the modern left, at least) cannot win elections based upon macro-issues - the great issues of the day - the size of government, taxes, the armed forces, crime, immigration, etc - but they can (and do) win by running in such a way as to attempt to push all the issues that matter to the sidelines and, instead, having us debate silly side issues.