SAN JOSE, Calif. -- When America elected Barack Obama president, the nation signaled a break with its past in ways beyond smashing the racial barrier.

His election marks the end of the baby boomer presidency and emergence of a new, 21st-century American electorate the likes we've never seen before: It's young, increasingly non-white and embraces a different kind of politics.

This election, social scientists and political observers say, points to the arrival of a coalition of voters who value action over partisanship, favor consensus over ideology and believe government can be a partner, not the enemy.

Goodbye to '60s-style politics that shaped the baby boomers, punctuated by idealism and polarization, and the anti-government conservatism of the 1980s Reagan era.

"We are at one of those turning points we encounter periodically in our history where people have lost faith in the old order and are looking for something new," said Morris Fiorina, a Stanford professor of history and Hoover Institution fellow who studies changing voter habits. "And it's often a generational change that leads to it."

The change, identified by Democrats and many Republicans, is not just an Obama phenomenon. And it's not just young voters. Blacks and Latinos, who came out in record numbers on Election Day, are long believers in activist government, and the nation's immigrant communities, including a growing Asian electorate, hunger for a break from policies that penalize instead of welcome newcomers.

The economic meltdown, say those studying the trend, is hastening a shift from the laissez-faire attitude toward government. A broad swath of voters support new regulations in the wake of the near-collapse of the nation's financial industry and as Congress ponders a massive infrastructure-improvement plan to create jobs.

So when John McCain called Mr. Obama a socialist and derided him for wanting to "spread the wealth," many voters, instead of bolting from Mr. Obama, said hey, maybe that's not such a bad idea, said Mike Hais, co-author of "Millennial Makeover: My Space, YouTube and the Future of American Politics" and a fellow at the New Democrat Network.

This emerging generation sprang into action this election cycle, as technology and politics melded to form a powerful virtual megaphone, allowing them to bypass mainstream media and build online communities to push their agendas. The consensus style, researchers say, comes from a desire to get things done, instead of getting bogged down in partisan politics.

The results indicate that the Me Generation is ceding to the We Generation.

Those who study what's dubbed the Millennial generation, loosely defined as those born between 1982 and 2003, say both parties need to be ready to respond. By 2016, they will make up one-third of the electorate. The minority vote, including Latinos, blacks and Asians, also tilts young and is firmly in the Democrats' column. Nearly 40 percent of Mr. Obama's votes were cast by minorities, compared with just 10 percent for Mr. McCain, the Republican nominee.

Latinos continue to be a growing political force. Turned off by immigration battles and concerned about the economy, Latino voters moved heavily back to the Democrats' side this election, supporting Mr. Obama by a 2-to-1 margin.

While Latinos have emerged as a powerful bloc in California over the past decade, they are only now making themselves count on the electoral map. Nationally, they increased their turnout by 30 percent over 2004 and voted in large enough numbers to help Mr. Obama secure victories in the battleground states of Nevada, Colorado, Indiana and New Mexico. And he won Florida, where a majority of Hispanics voted for the Democrat for the first time, due to an influx of non-Cuban Latinos and second-generation Cuban-Americans moving away from their parents' strong loyalty to the Republican Party.

They, too, believe in an activist government. "Latinos may be social conservatives because of their religion, but they are not anti-government conservatives," said Louis DeSipio, who head Chicano/Latino Studies at the University of California-Irvine.