That's just a cop-out, blaming it on "groundwork".  We could just as argue the crap throw at Bush was the prior "groundwork" for the crap thrown at Obama.  And before that Obama.  And before that Reagan & Bush.  It's been ratcheting up for decades.  

But what we've seen since election day is on a whole different plane.  It's gone from a 1 during Reagan/Bush, to a 2 during Clinton, a 3 during Bush, a 4 during Obama, and a 10 during Trump.