As President Trump’s polling takes a tumble 100 days into his second term – and Dick Durbin, the Senate’s second ranking Democrat, announces his retirement, a very old hit tune by Ethel Waters comes to mind: “There’ll be some changes made.”

Oh, really? Democrats have been grappling with their own version of that resolution, especially ever since the disastrous defeat of their party’s presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, in November.

“If you’re honest about yourself and your reputation, you want to leave when you can still walk out the front door and not be carried out the black door,” said Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate’s powerful Judiciary Committee after three decades in the upper body.

The “Biden Effect” is the label Rutgers University political scientist Ross Baker applied to the wave of goodbyes now rolling through the Senate.

Having covered Durbin numerous times during his tenure, I’ll miss him. He had a masterful command of the issues, whether I agreed with him or not, and I often learned a lot from him.

I also find a lot of agreement with those who say too many senior lawmakers are simply too reluctant or stubborn to step aside and give some of the younger whippersnappers a chance.

That’s where, as the old song reminds us, some changes may need to be made.

If there were a complaint about Durbin that resonated with me it was his reluctance to put pressure on Supreme Court justices for some questionable ethical practices. If nothing else, Durbin was an institutionalist, which is not always bad but also has its limits when changes need to be made.

His exit comes at a time when the tide seems to be turning against Trump.

Even Fox News, known for finding even the tiniest silver lining in any Trump tempest, offered little relief to the president’s MAGA supporters in light of recent polls. As the 100th day of his second term approached, a Fox News survey found voters approved of the job Trump was doing on border security, but displeased on just about every other issue — including inflation.

Remember the inflation consternation that dogged the Harris and Biden campaigns?

“Voters remain gloomy about the economy, as 71% rate economic conditions negatively and 55% say it is getting worse for their family,” Fox reported.

Voters’ assessments of the economy have improved slightly since December, before Trump took office, but only 28% felt like things were improving under Trump, while a huge majority — by a 22-point margin — think Trump’s policies are further damaging the economy.

That’s been a big challenge for the Democrats lately and has caused schisms along the lines of the generation gap.

The younger generation, as my own parents and grandparents soon learned, can be a lot less patient with the problems their elders tolerate.

For example, about half of Americans approved of the job Trump was doing a week after he took office, according to the New York Times average of dozens of leading polls. About 40 percent disapproved.

However, by the 100 days mark, his approval rating had fallen to around 45 percent and more than half of the country disapproved of his performance.

Trump manages to eke out a net positive rating among voters on border security (55%), but on immigration voters disapprove at a rate of 48%-47%. On the economy generally, his showing is 38% approve to 56% disapprove.

“His worst ratings,” Fox concluded, “are on inflation (33% approve, 59% disapprove), followed by tariffs (33%-58%), foreign policy (40%-54%), taxes (38%-53%), and guns (41%-44%).”

In short, both parties show signs of unease with their current leadership. We may need a new generation of leaders to step in, but, first, we need to look for ways to give them some help.