After political brinksmanship over the debt ceiling drove down congressional approval ratings this summer, members of Congress left for the August recess promising they’d return refreshed and ready to compromise. 

But as Politico points out, the spirit of cooperation is still absent on Capitol Hill these days. Politico reports that Sen. Daniel Inouye said he’s “never seen it like this.”

That may mean things are getting worse. 

Back in July, Inouye told us that the congressional infighting was as bad as he’d ever seen it since he arrived in Washington in 1959. 

“We had heavy debates on Vietnam,” Inouye said in July. “We had some debates, very serious ones, on should we go to Iraq or Afghanistan. But never like this.”

Read the full story from Politico, and more from Civil Beat‘s past conversation with Inouye about congressional quarreling.