Mark Preston is CNN's executive director of political programming and senior political analyst. He hosts "Full Stop with Mark Preston" on SiriusXM POTUS 124. The full interview can be heard on Saturday at 12 p.m. ET, Sunday at 1 a.m. ET, and Sunday at 5 p.m. ET. Follow him at @prestonCNN .

(CNN) It is difficult to definitively say that dysfunction and partisanship in the nation's capital is at an historic high in the era of Trump. After all, it was 161 years ago that South Carolina Rep. Preston Brooks nearly beat Massachusetts Sen. Charles Sumner to death with a cane on the Senate floor.

That 1856 attack was over the issue of slavery, a subject that five years later would turn brother against brother in a bloody conflict resulting in the deaths of more than 600,000 soldiers and the emancipation of African-American slaves.

By no means are we now, as a nation, engaged in a civil war. But it would be dishonest to disregard the current of anger and frustration pulsating from coast to coast over the direction of the country. It is dividing families and friends and in some cases, leading to violence -- as with the June shooting that left five people wounded, including House Majority Whip Steve Scalise.

On Capitol Hill, the wheels of progress and action are barely turning, while down the street at the White House, President Donald Trump spends more time criticizing, rather than cajoling, Democrats and Republicans to try and work together.

It was not always this way.

Compromise was not always a heretical word.

A concession meant you got some of what you wanted, just not all of it.

Republicans and Democrats would walk away from the bargaining table half happy, half disappointed -- but it allowed each political party to save face and live to debate, fight and negotiate another day. Nowadays, this type of legislating is a distant memory.

In the debut episode of "Full Stop with Mark Preston," my two CNN colleagues, Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash and Chief Political Analyst Gloria Borger recall the days of compromise as well as explain the challenges they faced as female journalists in a male dominated town.

Below are some of the highlights of our hour long interview. (This Q&A has been edited for brevity, clarity and flow).

Mood in Washington

Mark Preston: When you look at President Trump winning in November and where we are right now in mid-summer, what is the mood (on) Capitol Hill?

JUST WATCHED Sessions responds to Trump's criticism Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Sessions responds to Trump's criticism 01:22

Dana Bash: It's tense, it's chaotic. (The Republicans) have a President who wants to get things done, but he's so easily distracted by whatever it is he sees on cable television in the morning and most importantly, the Russia investigation.

Gloria Borger: I think chaos is a good word, and I think it's sort of chaotic within each party. Because the Republicans on health care and every other issue can't figure out how to proceed, and they don't have leadership at the White House. And the Democrats have their own problems because they've lost four (special) elections in a row now and they're trying to figure out what their message is aside from being anti-Trump, and I think it's a quite difficult path for all of them.

A bygone era

Preston: When Trent Lott and Tom Daschle were the Republican leader and the Democratic leader ... September 11th occurred, we had the anthrax attack on the Hart building ... we also had the 50-50 split in the United States Senate where Republicans had to cede power to Democrats midway through a Congress. It was crazy -- however, it seemed like (Congress) could at least function back then.

Bash: Definitely. ... Do you remember Daschle and Lott had a (private) phone (line), basically, where they could talk to each other, across party lines ... so they could just get a deal done? I say this all the time ... how many hours we would stand outside of Senator X or Congressman Y's office when there were bipartisan meetings happening inside, usually with multiple representatives of the White House. And the question wasn't, "Is there going to be a bipartisan deal?" It was, "What is the bipartisan deal going to look like?"

Borger: You know you always felt that -- and tell me if you guys disagree -- when there was a big thing going on and they were backed up against a wall, they would always end up cutting a deal and getting something done. Now it's exactly the opposite.

Bash: You always had adults in the room

Borger: Right, and so you always felt, they're going to work it out. Now as we look at health care, et cetera, you think nothing's going to happen. And it's just a different mind-set now where I always felt that somehow the grown-ups, as Dana puts it, would work it out.

Preston: Are there multiple wars occurring right now? When I say multiple wars ... let's just go back 10 years or 12 years ... you had a little bit of infighting within the party, John McCain would fight with his own Republicans, you would have Senator Ben Nelson from Nebraska who was more of a centrist, he would fight with Harry Reid who was the liberal leader. But now you almost have this ongoing war inside the Republican Party, this ongoing war inside the Democratic Party. They can't seem to clean up their own messes internally in order to then fight each other.

JUST WATCHED President continues public attacks on Sessions Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH President continues public attacks on Sessions 03:28

Bash: Well, yeah, that's true. That's totally true. Except that we are accepting the sad reality that Democrats aren't even involved. Now they don't want to be involved in anything that has to do with repealing Obamacare, so that's sort of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Preston: You know, I was talking to a very powerful lobbyist recently, a Republican lobbyist, and just talking about health care, and this lobbyist's head was almost exploding, saying they had seven years to get something done, seven years, and they really dropped the ball on it.

Borger: As John Boehner said, the Republicans have never known what they wanted to do on health care, and he's so happy he's not here having to figure it out. But now that he is free to speak his mind, he says it quite openly.

Future of the major parties

Preston: If you look at the Democratic Party right now, where is the leadership coming from?

Bash: It's coming from the grassroots. The problem is that "the resistance," like any resistance at any point in history, they are purists and they are impatient, and so it doesn't really gel well with a reality of how a party gets its mojo back, and this party is really, really struggling with that.

Borger: (Democrats) have been hollowed out at the state level, so where are the leaders coming from? This is a question, it's generational obviously, but is there any natural person on the horizon? Everyone talks about (Massachusetts Sen.) Elizabeth Warren, but is there a uniter of the Democratic party on the horizon?

Preston: Let's talk about the Republican Party. (Republicans) do have a deep bench, don't they?

Borger: Look, they had a deep bench this past election. I'm looking at a book on your desk by (Ohio Gov.) John Kasich, "Two Paths." He was part of the bench and he'll run again, I believe. ... Look at Marco Rubio ... Ted Cruz may decide (to run) again.

Facing sexism

Preston: Let's talk about your career, you started as a newspaper reporter?

Borger: At the Washington Star ... they hired me at the Washington Star after I got out (of college). I was all set to go to journalism school and then I got this job, so I took it. I covered cops and dead bodies and I threw up at my first police scene.

Preston: Can I ask something gruesome? Was it a gunshot?

Borger: It was a stabbing. Anyway, Brenda Starr, girl reporter, goes out and throws up (and) people at the newspaper went out and dined out on that forever.

Preston: Was it (similar to) "Mad Men"?

Borger: Well my first boss, who was a wonderful guy, told me he hired me as an intern because I had good legs.

Follow CNN Opinion Join us on Twitter and Facebook

Preston: Are you serious?

Borger: That's why he hired me. I didn't know how to kind of receive that, you just didn't. It was bizarre, but it wasn't like you just take him to HR or anything.

Bash: (Now) we have power in numbers. There' s just a lot of us, and ... because of that we have a camaraderie, a sisterhood.

Where journalism stands

Preston: What are the misperceptions of journalism?

Bash: I think journalism has changed for the better, and it's not just "here's what he said, here's what she said" back to you. It is, "Here is what they are saying and here is what the truth is." We're liberated to aggressively talk about the truth, the reality, and not have these false equivalencies that frankly did exist when I first started in journalism.