I lived in US for around thirty years, the political divide became more pronounced - that is for sure. Media has changed as well, but the society and realities on the ground are about the same. The current administration is doing things that are not politics as usual, it is starting to feel like freedom of speech and rule of law might be the thing of the past. Troops in Portland is another posturing from Trump to show his electorate that he is doing something as well as to normalize the deployment of troops to the US cities, so that when time comes for the third term nobody thinks anything of military in the streets...
It is exactly the first part of this point. Whether the third-term comes or not, the normalisation of troops in the streets is a massive step to cementing a police state.