The biggest change is in our national capacity for shock. Many people are genuinely alarmed by Trump’s efforts to enlist Ukraine in U.S. domestic politics, but there aren’t many at this late date who are shocked—as in, can’t believe this is happening!– by his actions or statements about them.

A telling example from the earlier episode. Clinton lied about his relationship with Lewinsky for several months in 1998, from the time the story broke in January until he made a nationally televised confession in August. It is hard to recall the degree of bipartisan disapproval that thundered down on the passages in that confession when he confronted, not by name, prosecutor Kenneth Starr. The investigation into his private life, he complained, had “gone on too long, cost too much, and hurt too many innocent people.”

Even many Democratic lawmakers were aghast and outspokenly critical. How dare Clinton, at a time when he should be wallowing in contrition, instead question the legitimacy of the effort to drive him from office?

Compare Clinton’s mild words of protest with—to pick almost at random from hundreds of ready examples—Trump’s description this week of House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff.