Divided government, or just divided ?

My bro in Houston and I have generally agreed over the last decade or so that American government works best when it's split between the major parties, with one party controlling the executive branch and the other the legislative. I've always based my endorsement of the divided government concept on the experience of my adulthood (1965-present), since it seemed that peace and prosperity for the country as a whole coincided with periods when a Republican was in the White House and Democrats controlled congress, or vice versa. It may have been bad timing, but it seems like the worst years for America have occurred when either party controlled both branches --- the LBJ and Carter administrations, and the Bush-Cheney-Rove triumvirate being vivid illustrations. Republicans held the Senate from 1981-1987, so Reagan's two terms were at best a 75/25 hybrid and don't fit my argument.

I've concluded that my view of divided government is naive idealism and an example of obsolete thinking. It always depended on the principle of common cause, an assumption that the executive and legislative branches would have common goals but disagree on how to achieve them. Checks and balances would require compromise and reasonably viable public policy would be the end result. A good example, one I'm somewhat familiar with, is the welfare reform legislation developed in Clinton's second term.

Since the Nixon years, the GOP form of conservatism has gotten progressively more radical each time a power shift favored them. Reagan started things and by the Gingrich years, a strong argument can be made that the only Republican congressional priority was finding some excuse, any excuse, to impeach a Democratic president and remove him from office. There's no point in rehashing the results when Bush, Cheney and Rove were added to the mix, and since January 2009 things have gotten even worse. The modern GOP is focused on eliminating government as much as possible; today's Republicans have no interest in governing, only in making sure Democrats can't. When Limbaugh announced his hope that Obama's presidency would fail, he spoke the words nearly every Republican was thinking, and it told me the principle of common cause was dead and buried.

Added 10:22 pm: Froma Harrop on the extinction of moderate Republicans.