I think everyone from my generation (I'm 40) who grew up with this crap driving every single election (like Dukakis in that stupid helmet photo for an appropriately ancient reference) recognized this was an extremely cynical political tactic driven by a ridiculously incompetent American media by the time we were eighteen. The media never realized, and may still not have realized, that this is over now.
Trump knew it. And now he blew it up. There will be some good that comes out of his presidency. The lacking in mental fortitude media doesn't have the power it once held.
There was one thing he didn't count on and that was that the system wouldn't magically glue together after he broke it and won the election.
He broke it to a point of no repair but he actually wanted things to go back to 'normal' after he was elected. His enemies would lick his wounds and praise his genius vs. all the wrong polls, his followers would understand that his radical positions were part of the Art of the Deal high stakes spiel and the press would respect him as President. This was even hinted at by the campaign and his family. Trump was fighting a grudge match against Clinton but he had a different 'side' that could be as presidential as needed. He'd even delete his Twitter when elected.
This was never as obvious as during one of his first 'thank you tour' rallies when the crowd started chanting lock her up and he said:
"Oh boy that was before the election folks. We won, we have to come together now. But did we have fun or what?"
That more than anything is what sunk his early approval ratings among the R base. Between dining with Romney, budget deals with Pelosi and Schumer and having Reince dictate policies that wasn't what they had voted for.
At some point he gave up his outreach program and went full campaign Trump again. And lo and behold is approval ratings started to slowly crawl up.