You and I are around the same age. No doubt you’d agree this all started in 1980 when the media crapped it’s pants over Reagan’s victory. They appointed themselves guardians after that, dedicated to making damned sure THAT never happens again.
That isn’t how I remember 1980 at all.
They threw the kitchen sink at Reagan, just as they have at Trump. The things they do now that they didn’t then are strictly a result of a packed supreme court, but the press did as much as was possible in 1980.