WASHINGTON — Tax overhaul, Russian election meddling and whether Republicans and Democrats might ever reach a political détente during the Trump presidency were among the top topics on Wednesday during a TimesTalks conversation with Senators Bob Corker, Republican of Tennessee, and Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia. The two traded good-natured barbs as they discussed the era of waning compromise in Washington.

Here are the takeaways.

Withering bipartisanship?

As Southern senators who were used to cutting deals when they were businessmen, Mr. Corker and Mr. Warner have as good a reason as any to have faith in bipartisanship. But their forecasts on Republican and Democratic compromise were far from rosy. High-priority policies like health care and tax overhaul have been handled by Congress in way that has been anything but bipartisan.

“I know people back home don’t like to hear this,” Mr. Corker said. “But Washington, more fully than people want to think, reflects the country and the country is divided.”

Their theories for the split included the news media and activists on the extremes of both parties. “We’ve ended up concentrating too much power in respective Republican and Democratic leaders in the House and the Senate,” Mr. Warner said.