The problem of course is that any “big” policy agenda is going to have enormous opposition and so if the base case is that you want to build consensus first, you will basically not get much of anything done.
The ACA began with quite a few people including Obama wanting a public option, and that was basically impossible because the Obama admin decided it was very important to court Max Baucus and Chuck Grassley and take them seriously, instead of just telling their conference what was going to happen and nut cutting.
It is worth comparing what McConnell did. He threatened pulling Chuck Grassley’s seniority, his prime committee appointments, access to the Republican Senate funds all because he was NEGOTIATING with Dems. Not even that he was going to vote for the bill, just for inserting republican friendly amendments (THAT THE DEMS MOSTLY KEPT IN ANYWAYS EVEN THOUGH THEY GOT ZERO REPUBLICAN VOTES)
So to review, McConell was going to torch any republican senators entire bloodline for talking to Dems, and Dems were actively reaching out to try and get 1-2 republican votes. In the end? Not even Susan Collins or Olympia Snow came on board because intense pressure from your own party is always more effective than goodies from the other side.