Well, @handypoint , I actually do not see much difference or change in the behaviour generally of Politicians and think that in the past, most people were shielded from the worst of the worst. In fact, the things that MPs could get away with and did, in terms of sexual assault, excesses on the public purse and perhaps even fraud are just not possible today.
It may be hard to believe but some MP’s back in the 1970’s were bigger red-neck racists than today and that is from most Parties. And in terms of Leadership, even ScoMo shows more qualities than Liberal leaders of the late sixties and while Bill has a lots to beat from Gough to Bob to Paul, I would suggest he is a better Leader than Gough, and has much better control of his ego than Bob or Paul. I could cite examples, but I don’t want to spoil the pedestal that some put our past Leaders on.
And do not think for one minute that the Public were nice and polite, there were some very angry and violent people out there.
As I said, the real difference is that we have a front row seat for about everything a Politician does; the Fraser Annings of 50 years ago would speak openly like him, full of hate, but few heard them. No instant media and no-one cared much. I was at a demonstration in 1975 where we threw eggs and tomatoes at Malcolm Fraser, and it was hardly reported.
I will still always argue that we treat our Leaders very poorly, and the World would be a better place if we all showed them more respect, and let them do their job unhindered by polls and social media.