We the people have become ridiculously partisan yes. And I suppose it is a matter of self defense if we see the policies and proposals of the opposition as the most destructive. I am not sure those in Washington are so partisan as they would have us believe though. Democrats and Republicans have to go through the motions to throw enough bones to their base to get sufficient votes to stay in their lucrative and self serving positions. But ultimately nothing much ever happens to make things better does it? That's because making things better is not as sure a thing as the status quo is to increase their power, prestige, influence, and personal wealth.
I think both Democrats and Republicans hate Trump, for instance, not because he proposes doing bad things. He doesn't. But what he proposes could, maybe would, upset that status quo that is so valuable to both parties. They are not in the least interested in making government more efficient, effective, or honest because it benefits them for it to stay as it is. And Donald Trump is not one of them--one who will toe the line and protect the status quo. Hillary is. So I am thinking the Republicans of course want to retain their majority and those lucrative committee chairs, but they don't want things to significantly change for them. So they are allowing Hillary to be elected as one of them, and they are doing everything in their power to sabotage Trump who isn't.
It is a very different world than when George H.W. Bush was President. Now almost everybody in Congress is part of the permanent political class who want all that corruption and flexibility in their President.