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Edward Kennedy's death may mark the end of hope for consensus in American politics.

Vice-President Joe Biden fought back tears as he paid tribute to the Massachusetts senator, dead of brain cancer at 77: “He restored my sense of idealism and my faith in the possibilities of what this country could do.”

Scarcely an American walks today whose life has not been changed by Ted Kennedy. Children of the working poor, people with disabilities, the elderly, women seeking an abortion, parents in need of maternity leave, immigrants, workers in hazardous jobs, children in school all benefited from legislation he pioneered or promoted.

Said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: “Ted Kennedy's dream was the one for which the Founding Fathers fought and … which his brothers sought to realize. The liberal lion's mighty roar may now fall silent, but his dream shall never die.”

He was a negotiator beyond compare, blessed with the ability to enjoy other people. Despite tragedy and folly – the deaths of his brothers John and Bobby; his inexcusable behaviour after he drove his car off the bridge at Chappaquiddick, which left Mary Jo Kopechne dead – he retained a love for life, boundless curiosity and faith in the possibility of the world.

Some of his fiercest political enemies sponsored legislation with him. One of them is Orrin Hatch, the conservative Republican senator from Utah, who arrived in Washington 32 years ago determined, as he said, “to fight Ted Kennedy.”

They did fight, but they also worked together on legislation, often to the chagrin of more partisan Democrats and Republicans.

Mr. Hatch said recently that, had Mr. Kennedy not fallen ill, there might well be health-care reform legislation in place today, passed with bipartisan support.

“I don't know of another Democrat who has that kind of swat today,” he said.

Instead, Republicans are fighting President Barack Obama's health-care legislation at every turn, convinced that, as they openly say, they can destroy his presidency if they succeed.

And as the GOP unites around a deeply reactionary agenda, leaving the few remaining moderates such Maine senators Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins estranged within their own caucus, the Democrats threaten to splinter into irreconcilable factions, pitting conservative Blue Dog Democrats against the more liberal wing of the party.

Mr. Kennedy was a fierce champion of that wing. But he knew how to scratch a back; to give away this in exchange for that; to promise something down the road; to provide political cover. He knew what the other guy needed and, after a career spanning 47 years in the Senate, he knew how to deliver.

“In the United States Senate, I can think of no one who engendered greater respect or affection from members of both sides of the aisle,” Mr. Obama, former senator from Illinois, said Wednesday, describing his late colleague as “not only one of the greatest senators of our time, but one of the most accomplished Americans ever to serve our democracy.”

Politically, no one has been more damaged by the eclipse of Ted Kennedy than Mr. Obama. Exactly a year ago Wednesday, the Massachusetts senator galvanized the Democratic National Convention with his rousing endorsement of their presidential candidate, the last lion handing the future of the Democratic Party to a new generation.

Mr. Kennedy vowed to fight to deliver health-care reform in Congress under the new president. But he was too weak, and his staff lacked his negotiating gifts. Today, the cause of health-care reform hangs by a thread.

From its founding, America has struggled with cleavages of race and class, of what it wanted to be and of its place in the world.

But from time to time, giants of the Senate have brought healing. Henry Clay saved the union with the Missouri Compromise of 1820. Arthur Vandenberg abandoned a lifetime of isolationism to support Harry Truman's Marshall Plan. Edward Kennedy partnered with George W. Bush to pass the No Child Left Behind Act, which is already bringing measurable improvements to the nation's public schools.

Beyond all that, the man was loved.

When news of Mr. Kennedy's illness broke in May of last year, Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, the only senator to have served longer than Mr. Kennedy, wept openly on the Senate floor.

“Ted, Ted, my dear friend, I love you and I miss you,” he sobbed.

Mr. Byrd, who is 91, continues to serve. But Ted Kennedy's passing is the passing of an age.