The White House never had great PR teams anymore than Ronald Reagan did.
The reality is the bias of the left wing MSM. The NY Slimes for example in the last election didn’t recommend a single republican candidate for congress and did their best to defeat Leiberman.
Our side had rather get in a circle and put GW and Rove in the center and have a circular firing squad instead of blaming the left.
My memory of this would like to coincide with yours and it comes close, but doesn't quite come into tight formation. Reagan got every bit as continual a barrage of full court presses and blinding blizzard of BS as Bush has. In fact, I remember the vitriol being far more bile filled and desperate against Reagan IMO.
What may make it seem that Reagan's era wasn't any tougher than G.W. Bush's is that Reagan laid down a withering blanket of return fire that kept it in far better control than anything I've seen from Bush II's administration. For instance, the Lebanon fiasco with Reagan, the Shuttle blowing up with Reagan, etc., etc., etc...
I remember it being so bad during Reagan that I always believed it was why his V.P. came lurching forward to run for President under the banner of "A Kinder Gentler Presidency" which I still consider grossly insulting to Reagan's Presidency!!!