Guilt and shame are useful lenses to view ancient Greek culture, too. In the Iliad for example Hector knows that he is likely to die and leave his wife and child bereft, but worries about what the Trojans will think of him should he abandon the battle. Shame, in that sense, is the sense of being seen by others as violating the expected norm. (It operates differently in different characters: Achilles, for some reason, doesn't feel it.)

My point is simply that shame requires a sense that others whom you care about find that you are violating some accepted norm. There are no common shared norms in our partisan environment. Lies are only wrong when told by the other side. Bigotry is only bad if the other party demonstrates it. Fraud isn't fraud if your team practices it. That's an airless environment for shame. But shame isn't quite dead, as the George Santos story reveals. Eric Greitens, Madison Cawthorn, and Rob Porter might also serve as more contemporary examples. I'm not sure why it works when it does, but sex seems to be a dividing line.