Yeah, but there was always hope that they'll restrain themselves about one thing or another to keep up the appearances of a good guy. USA being unabashedly bad is new.
In my experience, that was destroyed under Bush Jr as Reagan-time shenanigans like buildup to Able Archer 83 just weren't widely known. The 1990s still had veneers of legitimate use of force, but the GWOT and especially Iraq quickly eroded that perception in public in my experience.
The new thing to me is the turn from "smiling psycho that will knife you in the back" into a form of unabashed revelry in dumb brute posturing
The new thing to me is the turn from "smiling psycho that will knife you in the back" into a form of unabashed revelry in dumb brute posturing