@farmerman,
I know you know this - but evolution doesn't mean improvement, it's adaptation to a changing environment.
Viewed through that lens the shift to unempathic, right wing, "**** you jack, I got mine" bullshitters says worrying things about how the environment is changing.
I've often thought that it might be possible for a species to evolve that destroys the environment before the dynamic equilibrium of an ecology is established. And I think we might be that species.