No, they were not, but the difference is the staffers of the office holders got along and helped hammer out the deals over drinks and smokes. They got along with each other after the cameras were off, not anymore, we all hate each other.
Teddy Kennedy and his comrades were as nasty and vengeful a crowd as we have today, going as far as siding with the Sandanista communists while we were fighting them.
Tip O’Neill was a double dealing liar whose word was no good. He agreed to budget cuts when Reagan proposed his first budget, then reneged on them creating a mess in the nation’s finances.
This is some of the revisionist history. Bob Michel was the weak minority leader for the Republicans, willing to roll over for the Dems. That’s the only reason there was a veneer of civility.
Of course they did, they were democrats and democrats in republican clothing.
It was hard to sift out a dozen Conservatives in the lot.