It seems like that might be the case... Perhaps, the better way of posing the question would have been: if there were such a thing as the collective psyche, how much can it be swayed by polling data and or news cycles?

Personally, I feel instinctually more willing to participate when I'm led to believe the system is working as advertised. Trump's campaign took the angle that that could have been the last chance at an election. I'd bet that got lots of otherwise disenchanted voters to the polls. Before this current age of lonliness, people's tribal instincts perhaps evolved more slowly, based on real world interactions with people from their community, as opposed to the snap judgements made when the orange man yells at you through your airpods.