If the WaPo is upset over the politicization of the Court, they should have supported the nomination of Robert Bork and opposed Ted Kennedy's character assassination of him. Typical liberals. They create the monster, then cry like little girls when the monster turns on them.
I think it reasonable to believe the “point after which everything went to h311” so far as the US Supreme Court is concerned would be Baker v Carr.
That one got decided in 1962. Justice Frankfurter warned the Court it was “getting into the political thicket.” His “revenge” came in 2000 when the courts had to figure out if GWB or AlGore won the election.