ST. LOUIS — The question has been asked so many times over the past 16 months of this presidential campaign that it has become a cliche: Has anyone ever seen anything quite like this? And yet, once again, Donald Trump took Campaign 2016 to places no one could have imagined when it all began.

What occurred here Sunday is likely to be remembered as the Spectacle in St. Louis: a presidential debate wrapped inside a sordid and unfolding series of events that have left Trump isolated, defiant and politically wounded, his Republican Party at war with itself, and the country caught up in a campaign that has left issues and even moderately civil debate far behind, almost an afterthought.

In the wake of the release of an 11-year-old video of Trump speaking of actions that, if carried out, would amount to sexual assaults of women, the Republican nominee may have stepped back, issued another apology and tried to keep his demeanor in his Sunday exchange with Hillary Clinton as restrained as possible. He chose to do otherwise.

By the time the 90-minute town-hall debate had ended, he tried to turn attention away from the damaging video by saying that Clinton's husband, Bill Clinton, had treated women far worse. And he pledged that if he becomes president, he would appoint a special prosecutor to go after her for her use of a private email server, saying if he were in charge of law enforcement, she would be in prison.

Clinton said the Trump who appeared in the lewd video is the real Trump, a man who has insulted and denigrated women, Hispanics, disabled people, Muslims and others, and who is temperamentally unfit to be president. It is an oft-stated charge, but one with heightened effect at this particular moment of the campaign.

It's not that serious issues were not addressed and at times serious disagreements aired, whether it was over the Affordable Care Act or the state of U.S. foreign policy under President Barack Obama. But never has there been a presidential debate in which the attacks, the body language or the exchanges conveyed the degree to which this campaign has reached the depths of division and disagreement, not just between the two candidates but between two Americans.

What unfolded was a debate unlike any ever seen in modern American politics, two candidates who have the utmost disrespect for the other hurling allegations, insults and criticism at each other. If Trump had a strategy for the night, it was to embrace the view of those who have been calling on him to go on offense, to throw whatever he can at Clinton in an effort to energize Americans who have been utterly loyal to him and who hold Clinton in contempt.

Most of the fireworks took place in the first half of the debate. By the second half, the personal insults receded slightly and it was during these exchanges that Trump sought to press his case that Clinton is a symbol of a failed status quo and that he offers not only alternate policies but also would blow up that status quo with an entirely different style of leadership.

But the strategy he employed is high risk, one that could limit his ability to expand his support and one that also risks offending those in his party.

Twenty-nine days remain until the election, and given this unbelievable year, no one can begin to predict the ebbs and flows to come, nor can the Clinton team take for granted the margins by which she now leads. Should the spotlight turn to Clinton in a negative way, she could suffer politically as she has at times earlier.

But Trump is a battered, bruised and angry candidate, and therefore more unpredictable than ever.

In one way, Trump showed Sunday that he knows he is now a candidate alone, on his own to fight the remainder of the campaign without the full support of his party.

But he also sought to send messages of reassurance to still-wavering Republicans that he embraces some of the priorities they hold most dear.

The final presidential debate won't come for more than a week — Oct. 19. But its significance could pale in comparison to what happens in the days immediately ahead. Events are moving far too quickly and the stakes — for Trump and for the Republican Party — too large for anyone to wait.

For Trump, this is a final roll of the dice. For Republicans this is about more than the presidency and they know they will be living with the fallout from this campaign long after the results of this election are known on Nov. 8.