The Republican nominee has been giving more scripted speeches and spending less time at rallies, where his off-the-cuff style often resulted in controversy.

He has been tweeting less, doing fewer interviews and spending more time on retail campaigning, this week visiting local police departments and meeting with flood victims in Louisiana.

And after getting swamped by tens of millions of dollars in ad spending from Clinton and her allies, the Trump campaign purchased its first television ad buys this week, placing $4 million in spots that began airing in key battleground states on Friday.

Add it all up, and for the first time, the Trump campaign is taking on the appearance of something it has never had before: an air of normalcy.

"It's been a while since the Trump campaign handed Republicans anything to be encouraged about, but this renewed effort to run an orthodox campaign is certainly an improvement over what we've seen over the past couple of months," said one GOP operative working on a Senate race in a battleground state.