Unfortunately, the disagreements are not minor anymore, as you can see on the social networks and in the streets of the USA.

many of the disagreements are being given hyperbolic treatment to the point where all Trump supporters are Nazis and liberals are all SJWs. That's not an environment that's conducive to talking about why e.g. the immigration ban is too far in defense of national security. It just becomes another "us vs them" black-and-white situation that can drive nothing but division.

It's the greater problem of the anti-science sentiment of the general public.

Even some of my brighter & more successful friends lack the self-awareness to have a constructive dialogue with the other side without "feelz" getting in the way of "realz". It doesn't help that none of them are policy experts or economists, but there it is.

I fully agree that facts must supersede feelings, but that doesn't mean that one has to be a policy expert or economist -- that's yet another rigging of the system.

You don't have to have studied very specific disciplines to be suspicous about the fact that your parents went casually to work at offices without ever "disrupting markets" or "moving forward and breaking things" and yet they had 2 cars, villa at the sea, and 2 apartments. How? By showing up at work and working times less than you or me.

And a new iPhone every year

consumerism is just giving the people what they want. It might be distracting, but just because that's what people want to do - chat to friends, play games, buy fashionable clothes etc. Politics is where the manipulation happens.