Just one sentence
The zeitgeist of the Bush years can be summed up by one unintentionally meta-critical sentence from the ABC News blog "The Blotter" (via HuffPo):
The White House will not identify a private company which appears to be involved in the disappearance of millions of White House e-mails.
Mull that sentence over for a while, then ask yourself why it was written without a sense of shock, or outrage, or disgust, but is instead a distressingly bland description of this White House's distressingly common contempt for the law and for the American people. Ask yourself why you weren't really all that surprised when you read that sentence.
We've fallen, and I'm not sure we can get up again.