Appeals to voters’ insecurities and anxieties have always been part of politics. But what is striking about the current dynamic inside the Republican Party is how pervasive the sense has become that the country is slipping, and maybe irretrievably so.

“You’ve got elements of all the different branches of the Republican Party that see darkness now,” said David Gergen, a former adviser to Presidents Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. “Social conservatives have been at the forefront of that for a long time. But now the foreign policy and economic types feel like we face serious risk of decline.”

The mood of the country is certainly grim. About two-thirds of Americans believe the country is adrift, according to recent public opinion surveys from a variety of news organizations and independent firms. That sentiment has remained stubbornly high for most of the Obama presidency, with strong majorities of Americans consistently saying the country is on the wrong track for the last five years, according to polling by The New York Times and CBS News.

After years of slow economic growth, stagnant incomes, political dysfunction and worsening threats from abroad, many Republican pollsters and analysts are asking themselves whether there has been a fundamental change in how Americans, historically an optimistic people, now see themselves. And they are wondering whether, as a consequence, 2016 will be a year when voters turn to someone whose message is mainly focused on what is wrong with the country.