The rise of Andrew Jackson was a time of political antagonism for sure: depending on your point of view, he either represented the common man and ended the lock of Virginia and New England elites on the federal government, or he ended a period of wise and careful government and turned over the country to an uneducated violent rabble. But Congress was still able to function: they were able to authorize the building of the National Road, for example, and the present one has just failed at doing something similar.

For stifled Congressional action, perhaps someone has a better notion, but surely one example would be under the speakership of Joe Canon, who until his ouster in 1910 had a lock on every committee appointment and every bill that tried to make its way through the House of Representatives.