There really hasn't ever been that, in the US at least.
Yellow Journalism [0] has been around for ~120 years now. The 1800 US Presidential campaign was very slanderous and personal [1]. His Girl Friday (1940)[2] starring Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant is a great comedy about journalism and the all the shady things that go on. Reading through all those events, the tricks are the same ones that we humans fall for time and again. Sure, FAANG and the like have made it faster, more up-tempo. But the lies have always gotten half-way around the globe before the truth put it's pants on.
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_journalism
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1800_United_States_presidentia...
[2] https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032599/ (No really, it's great! Go watch it!)
For that model work, you need two sides with a commitment to the common goals and a good respect for truth and a common set of facts, which we don't have anymore. That stopped being the case at least by the time one side ran a president who is an obvious-to-most compulsive liar with tendencies for demagoguery.