Such was the theme of Monday’s proceedings: a series of meditations on grand traditions, a resignation to their imminent demise and an insistence that the other side was to blame.

During the committee vote, senators took turns lamenting the state of the institution they serve, although none pledged to buck their own party on either the Democratic filibuster or the Republican push for a rule change.

What comes next, it appears, is a slow-motion dismantling of senatorial standards and practice, scheduled for demolition over several days.

“This is a new low,” Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican majority leader, said of the likely filibuster, “but not entirely surprising.”

Of course, Democrats identify Mr. McConnell as the chief purveyor of new lows. From the beginning, the Gorsuch nomination has been shadowed, in large measure, by Judge Merrick B. Garland, whom President Barack Obama nominated in March 2016 after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia the month before. Mr. McConnell led Republicans in refusing to even consider the nomination during a presidential election year.

But Democrats insist that their opposition to Judge Gorsuch is not about payback. They have cited his record on workers’ rights and his degree of independence from Mr. Trump and conservative groups like the Federalist Society, among other concerns.