loop de loop

Two quick comments:

1. Didion's description of the newspapers recycled as posters that are then given out to the reporters of those newspapers conjured up thoughts of recycling and the eternal return of players, themes, and visual tropes from convention to convention. Do these ever change? Is there a way to write about (or document in any fashion) these events without this sense of seen-it-already? What do Thompson, Didon, and Mencken DO as writers to freshen up this tedium?

2. It occurred to me while reading these essays that each writer, though unstated, works with the big spectres of previous conventions and presidencies. For Didion, it's the Reagan Years; Thompson has '68 and its ghosts; and Mencken's reporting comes after the four terms of FDR.
How do these events shape their interests and writing styles?