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Since 2021, Democrats have controlled the House, the Senate and the presidency, and they\u2019ve used that power to pass consequential legislation, from the American Rescue Plan to the Inflation Reduction Act. That state of affairs was exceptional: In the 50 years between 1970 and 2020, the U.S. House, Senate and presidency were only under unified party control for 14 years. Divided government has become the norm in American politics. And since Republicans won back the House in November, it is about to become the reality once again.\n\nBut that doesn\u2019t mean policymaking is going to stop \u2014 far from it. As America\u2019s national politics have become more and more gridlocked in recent decades, many consequential policy decisions have been increasingly pushed down to the state level. The ability to receive a legal abortion or use recreational marijuana; how easy it is to join a union, purchase a firearm or vote in elections; the tax rates we pay and the kind of health insurance we have access to: These decisions are being determined at the state level to an extent not seen since before the civil rights revolution of the mid-twentieth century.\n\nJake Grumbach is a political scientist at the University of Washington and the author of the book \u201cLaboratories Against Democracy: How National Parties Transformed State Politics.\u201d In it, Grumbach tracks this shift in policymaking to the states and explores its implications for American politics. Our national mythologies present state government as less polarizing, more accountable to voters and a hedge against anti-democratic forces amassing too much power. But, as Grumbach shows, in an era of national political media, parties and identities, the truth is a lot more complicated.\n\nSo this conversation is a guide to the level of government that we tend to pay the least attention to, even as it shapes our lives more than any other.\n\nMentioned:\n\nDynamic Democracy by Devin Caughey and Christopher Warshaw\n\n\u201cDoes money have a conservative bias? Estimating the causal impact of Citizens United on state legislative preferences\u201d\xa0by Anna Harvey and Taylor Mattia\n\nState Capture by Alex Hertel-Fernandez\n\n\u201cFrom the Bargaining Table to the Ballot Box\u201d by James Feigenbaum, Alexander Hertel-Fernandez and Vanessa Williamson\n\nPaths Out of Dixie by Robert Mickey\n\n\u201cOld Money: Campaign Finance and Gerontocracy in the United States\u201d\xa0by Adam Bonica and Jake Grumbach\n\nBook Recommendations:\n\nFragmented Democracy by Jamila Michener\n\nPrivate Government by Elizabeth Anderson\n\nDilla Time by Dan Charnas\n\nThoughts? Email us at ezrakleinshow@nytimes.com. (And if you\u2019re reaching out to recommend a guest, please write \u201cGuest Suggestion\u201d in the subject line.)\n\nYou can find transcripts (posted midday) and more episodes of \u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\u201d at\xa0nytimes.com/ezra-klein-podcast, and you can find Ezra on Twitter @ezraklein. Book recommendations from all our guests are listed at\xa0https://www.nytimes.com/article/ezra-klein-show-book-recs.\n\n\u201cThe Ezra Klein Show\u201d is produced by Emefa Agawu, Annie Galvin, Jeff Geld, Rog\xe9 Karma and Kristin Lin. Fact-checking by Michelle Harris and Kate Sinclair. Original music by Isaac Jones. Mixing by Jeff Geld. Audience strategy by Shannon Busta.