Barack Obama will have vastly greater power to appoint nominees to cabinet posts and the judiciary after Senate Democrats yesterday forced the biggest change in half a century to the chamber’s rules.

By a vote of 52 to 48, the Senate ended the use of so-called filibusters against presidential nominees, overturning traditions in the chamber that allowed the minority party to block White House nominees.

Harry Reid, the Democratic majority leader, after a bitter debate in a packed chamber, won the battle to change rules that required nominees to get 60 votes in the 100-member chamber for confirmation. The showdown over the filibuster underlines how a chamber that has promoted courtesy in conducting its business is increasingly as partisan as the rest of the US political system.