The reason "grifting went sky high" is because of the profit model of Internet media. Engagements = ad revenue. This strongly incentivizes grifter behavior, from Trump and Alex Jones to Oprah and Rachel Maddow. Also, grifting became a lot more accessible with social media. Anyone can grift, you don't need radio or television deals.
That's a far cry from shilling colloidal silver and gold bars to elderly shutins.
On "poisoning," there's a long and rich tradition of comparing an entire nation to a human body, and labeling enemies or ideas as "poison," "cancer," "disease," or some other infectious or damaging agent. It's not a great analogy, even setting aside who else has used that rhetoric against whom.