americans
Humans have a tendency to be drawn to binary distinctions. Whether you draw the divide between parties (R/D), or political inclinations (liberal / conservative), or population density (urban / rural), or social class (elite / deplorable), every distinction can ultimately be reduced to us vs. them. This primordial force is part of our monkey brain tribal evolutionary past and it will be with us until extinction, universalist utopia be damned.
The fundamental unit of political agency in the liberal political tradition is the rational, autonomous, self-interested individual. While deeply flawed as a model of human nature, this is the only bulwark against the aforementioned primordial force. It is now no longer in vogue among the clerical elite class (academics, journalists, artists, scientists) who have come to reject it in light of its shortcomings, embracing instead a form of tribalism dubbed "identity politics".
Market fundamentalism and meritocracy have undermined traditional social bonds necessary for the formation of civic moral society. The delusional luxury beliefs of the aforementioned priestly class about the nature of man have been discredited by the very results of those beliefs, i.e., a grossly inflated sense of entitlement among an overgrown elite cohort who have been made cynical and resentful by the realization of their failure to attain the status they were promised.
As this resentful and ruthless worldview propagates through the media and academy, a growing number of Americans are radicalizing against the liberal establishment consensus along multiple fronts. The stitches are being pulled out of the quilt, leaving frayed patches of identity groups vying for power and influence in what is increasingly perceived to be a zero-sum game of power and status.