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“What ails the US press?”

They’ve devolved when they were never meant to either evolve or devolve. They can’t see it because they’re too close to it.

The question is miscast. What ails American political discourse is IMHO the real question. The first point is that journalism is inherently negative. That is inherently true because bad news grips your attention - and journalists know that, and desperately desire to do just that.
The second point is that journalists are all in cahoots. The wire services are virtual meetings of all major journalists, and - per Adam Smith - “People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public, or in some contrivance to raise prices.”
The wire services (starting with the AP) date back to before the Civil War, consequence of those facts is that by now wire service journalism - all major journalism - inevitably conspire against the public. That conspiracy takes the form of the massive propaganda claim that “all journalists are objective.” That is a fatuous conceit, but it does two things:
First of all, it makes it easy to put up a facade of superiority. You and I don’t claim to be objective, but journalists - don’t you know - are superior people.
Secondly, it disciplines all journalists to ideological conformity; anyone who questions any journalist’s objectivity ideologically suddenly becomes “not a journalist, not objective.”
Third, it is a claim which is not only guaranteed to be untrue, it marks journalists making such claim as cynical. I challenge you to find a better definition of cynicism than, “the conceit that negativity is objectivity.” And since journalists know that they are negative, always on the hunt for bad news, journalists claiming journalism is objective are mouthing pure cynicism.
Hence, the first problem with American political discourse is that so many people think that only journalists are qualified to conduct it. The direct cause of which is the “conspiracy against the public” of journalists who virtually “meet together,” continuously - and precisely about business.
Journalism is cynical about society, hence, naive about the opposite of society. And as Thomas Paine pointed out in Common Sense government exists to control evil in society - and in a real sense is the opposite of society. Naiveté towards government and cynicism towards society IMHO the proper description of socialism.
The Republican Party is an imperfect representative of society, the Democrat Party is an all-too-perfect representative of government. Thus, Democrats have no issue about going along and getting along with journalism and - since Democrats get along with journalists, journalists never libel Democrats. Thus, things like the New York Times v. Sullivan decision which discourage government officials from suing journalists for libel affect Republicans and not Democrats. The Sullivan decision was unanimous by the Warren Court. But the effect is Political Correctness - Democrats are entitled not only to their own opinions but to their own facts.