Who went there and listened, though? A couple hundred people? There's all kinds of places you can go on the internet right now where a couple hundred people will listen to intense, respectful debate. Heck, there's places where a couple hundred people will participate in an intense, respectful debate. Good luck finding that in the Lincoln-Douglas era.

The existence of mass media doesn't mean there isn't niche media. The fact that you don't visibly see people participating in respectful debate doesn't mean it's not happening. I think the solution to people who make this complaint isn't to rant about the degeneracy of their fellow man, but to go look harder for some of the many good things, if not always well-advertised things, that exist out there.