atrophied

In a recent essay at The American Prospect, Rick Perlstein echoes Rubin: “Even as the resources devoted to every other kind of journalism atrophied, poll-based political culture has overwhelmed us, crowding out all other ways of thinking about public life….The Washington Post’s polling director once said, 'There’s something addictive about polls and poll numbers.' He’s right. When we refer to 'political junkies,' polls are pretty much the junk.”

“Although his boss had to pretend to embrace the family-friendly nature of the town whose newspaper he ran,” Roman observes, “privately he was a man with a heart as atrophied as his calf muscles.”

Social skills and conversational ease have stiffened and atrophied.

When followed over several years, the super-agers’ brains atrophied at a slower rate than average.

Last month, the nonprofit Long Beach Post, which expertly covered the port city while the Press-Telegram atrophied, laid off nearly everyone.