It seems that way to me as well (though I can hardly stand to watch him any more) but wonder how much of that is a figment of my imagination.

I was hopeful that Trump was in a 'sweet spot' where he knew what he was up against and what he was going to need to do, but was also outside enough and careful enough to have no big-time dirt on him.  In retrospect I think that some of the indications of this were fabricated, and as someone who was quite desperate to not have Clinton I was prone to be hopeful.

It now looks to me as though Trump's cover was so deep that most of the media themselves were fooled.  To this day they are only coming to terms with their good fortunes.  This would explain why the fear and loathing for Trump on the part of the mainstream media was so palpable.  It really was real and they really were in a panic!

I considered the above possible (because it would be safer to keep the media in the dark lest they spill the beans) but unlikely because the differential between the skill level of the mainstream media hacks and those entities who were promoting the guy.  In retrospect I now realize what a powerful positive the negativity on the mainstream media front was on me, and probably a lot of people.

Another fairly brilliant trick was to induce the mainstream progressive sheeple into making a big deal about anti-Trump stuff which was blatantly trivial and absurd.  Easy enough to do and no surprise with modern methods and the idiots they are working with.  The trick was that I spent all of my time arguing against these nothingburger assertions and being frustrated at not talking about some of the larger issues.  Basically I (and I suspect a lot of others) spent the election tied up with pointless little nonsense while the important conceptual ideas gathered dust.