as you imply, always has been the case. i'd say what it shows more is that you have a political system that dis-incentivises compromise, which is backed up by both the media and the population in general considering it a weakness.
we've had 2 political parties that can command a majority and we don't generally get hung parliaments. it creates an "us" or "them" on both sides to the extent that, even if individually you don't participate in that tomfoolery you'll end up getting labelled as a "them" by one cunt or another. so the system naturally encourages division which acts as an obstacle to compromise. it's not in the interests of either of those parties to change the system, because the current one gives one or the other a better than 50% chance of being in power. even better for them, they may only need to hit 36% of voters to get that, at which point they will claim the country has given them a mandate to do whatever they like.
so not only is it no surprise they struggle to compromise, it is no surprise when many of them point to the cause as being the lack of command of a majority in the house, rather than their own inadequacies. it's mirrored by the public, "x said this and then did that, i'll never vote for them again" bollocks. i'm afraid, that tends to happen in life in general.
