This could be the making of America, or a road to deeper strife and fury

But it's deeply split about how to fix some of the nation's biggest woes -- a ballooning federal debt, near 10pc joblessness and a sluggish recovery.

With a divided government looming, President Barack Obama and ascendant Republicans faced only two options: compromise or stalemate.

Can this new power structure -- one with different ideological philosophies to fix increasingly complex problems -- actually lead a sharply polarised country that can't agree on where it wants to go? Will the politicians even try?

Diminished

If voters don't know what they want beyond something different from the status quo, how can a government deliver, much less one that's divided?

These will be the central questions of the next two years as a weakened Obama, diminished Democrats and resurgent Republicans try to figure out how to meet the demands of a suffering electorate that now seems to perpetually crave change. And how to keep their jobs in 2012.

"Maybe it is a message from the American public. We've got a Democrat in the White House. We'll have a majority Republican governors. We'll have a Democratic Senate, Republican House," Democratic Party chairman Tim Kaine said. "Everybody's got to work together."

If they can. Republicans and Democrats have opposite, and deeply ingrained, viewpoints on tax, health care, and fiscal policy, making it hard to see how they would find solutions both sides could accept. They agree that stimulating the economy and creating jobs should be at the top of the list, but they part ways over how to accomplish those goals.

If there is a model for the way forward in recent history, it's provided by President Bill Clinton, who established himself as more of a centrist by working with Republicans to pass welfare reform after Democrats lost their grip on Congress in 1994.

But Obama and the Republicans would be hard pressed to find a similar defining issue that would address economic anxiety.

That's particularly true given how much more partisan Capitol Hill -- and the political parties themselves -- have become in recent years. It's getting even more polarised as voters elect ultraconservative Tea Party-backed Republicans and fire conservative-to-moderate "blue dog" Democrats.

Acrimony

In a sign of acrimony ahead, Republicans put the president on notice that their party's co-operation was conditional.

"We hope President Obama will now respect the will of the people, change course, and commit to making the changes they are demanding. To the extent he is willing to do this, we are ready to work with him," said House Republican leader John Boehner, who expects to replace Nancy Pelosi as speaker in January.

For now, this much is clear from the midterm elections: a country in economic crisis is -- from the voters to the politicians -- enormously conflicted over the way forward.