Maybe. I'm one of those who think they had a lot of it (maybe not all) figured out. I don't think they were anywhere near as petty as today's clowns. They seemed to sincerely care about the country they were forming. I can't say that anymore. They got the whole constitution with preamble and amendments on about 20 typed pages. There is just no conceivable way that could ever happen again. Even the owner's manual for my truck is four or five times that.
I'm kinda with Kut on this one. In general, politicians then were every bit as petty as they are today. Today's mudslinging has nothing on what they did to each other back then.