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The Republican Party, after 50 years in the minority, developed tactics that allowed for a conservative voice in legislative branch, while relying on a strong Executive to keep the left in check. The 1994 surprise and the following years with a majority in both houses of congress and a Republican executive showed that they still thought that they were in the minority.
Their cajolery, tit for tat, back scratching business as usual tactics didn't work anymore. When they finally stood up on their hind legs, they had after all won, the press and their Dem colleagues went to work. They were villified in the press, and had their feelings hurt, they felt the lash of "politics of personal destruction". Individuals who had made poor personal choices were destroyed politically and in some cases at a personal level.
The Dems, who never ceded their leadership role, expected to "share power, chairmanships, etc" forced them off message to defend themselves and basically bullied them off the national stage.
Those members who were in office then, are still running scared, it's a shame they're what passes for leadership today.