Previous media (print television) had high costs of publishing and were therefore dominated by elites who controlled access to them.

So maybe this was the 'push lie' phase where elite media and politicians concocted lies to push to the populace.

That's now changed, everyone can publish on social media etc. So now people are making up their own lies, the lies they want to hear.

So maybe these 'populist' politicians are not 'push liars' but 'pull liars'. They look around on the internet, find the lies that people want to hear, and amplify them.

same with the media. Is Fox controlling its viewers or controlled by them? If it puts a foot wrong they will decamp to Newsmax etc.

Maybe we will regret the passing of the old elite 'push lie', which at least supplied some social cohesion?