UPDATE: The Erosion of Institutional Consensus Following our analysis two days ago on Congressional polarization since the 1990s, recent voting patterns on the debt ceiling extension demonstrate the accelerating fragmentation we documented. Where bipartisan coalitions once formed around fiscal matters as institutional norm, today's 218-210 party-line vote reflects the structural breakdown we outlined—with only 2 cross-party defectors compared to historical averages of 15-20. This represents not merely disagreement, but the dissolution of shared procedural expectations that once anchored legislative compromise.