Each day is met by the same reports: electoral interference has supposedly taken place, instigated by Russian, or at the very least outsourced Russian entities, in the elections of Europe and the United States. Such claims assert, not merely the reality of these claims, but the nature of their influence.
Such a stance detracts from one fundamental point: that the manipulation of electoral systems has been, and remains, common fare, irrespective of the finger pointing at Moscow. The shock has been towards the modern nature of that interference, capitalising on hacking as a key feature.
The United States, where claims of Russian influence remain the most notable and jagged, has not only been a key instigator of electoral disruption in other countries, even to the point of overthrowing elected governments, but a previous recipient of that fact.
On the latter point, Britain can stake an important claim to pioneering the copybook of local electoral interference, a strategy it undertook with some dedication in 1940.
In 1999, a history commissioned by Canadian Sir William Stephenson, chief of British Security Coordination responsible for Secret Intelligence Services operations in North and South America (1941-5), was declassified.
The history shed light on the committed efforts of Prime Minister Winston Churchill's government to create a formidable apparatus of propaganda and influence within the United States, designed to sway the opinions of Americans against neutrality in favour of the British war effort.
Tactics to that end involved the illegal interception of enemy communications on US soil, the infiltration of unfriendly labour unions and the funnelling of radio and print propaganda sympathetic to Britain's plight through networks in the United States.
According to Steve Usdin there were 'perhaps hundreds of Americans who believed that fighting fascism justified unethical and, at times, illegal behaviour'. Usdin provides a reminder that Britain's Secret Intelligence Services were adept at using their own variant of fake news and smear campaigns against candidates sympathetic to the 'America First' line.
"Global powers with the means and capability to alter the so-called trajectory of history through electoral interference, tend to do so."
In 1996, the US election system again became the subject of alleged external tinkering, this time in the form of campaign finance from Chinese sources to the Democratic Party. As with what took place in 2016, there was rage and indignation. Some members of Congress went so far as to call for punitive action against the PRC. The Clinton administration was unconvinced. 'We