Back to current times: if the Republicans have a broad enough base with interests that overlap they should be able to keep the Government funded without Democrats help. They could also choose to give a little so Democrats feel they got something out of the compromise and easily do it. This is a test of the current Republican Party to see if it can gain a consensus large enough to get stuff done.
The Republicans need at least 8 Democrat votes to keep the government running. That means that they have to make some compromise, somewhere. This is the problem, and why it is the Republicans that are continually to blame for shutting down the government. The Republicans have so many extremists in their party that making any compromise loses some Republican votes, which means they need more Democrat votes, which means they have to make more compromises, which means they lose more Republican votes.... and that just keeps going until either they deadlock or the Democrats decide they are satisfied.
So, remember that each time we get a continuing resolution or budget it is because the Democrats decided to put the needs of the government ahead of their own platform, because they could just keep wringing the Republicans out for more and more compromises. Eventually they Repubs would have to give it to them or get nothing done.
Personally, I think the Democrats are being too lenient. They should be holding the line for at least the three big issues right now: CHIP, DACA, and ACA Subsidies.