The Whigs died not for being out of touch, but for having two thoroughly diametrically opposed ideologies under one roof. You had to run candidates who wouldn’t risk offending either side in a national election (which meant they stood for absolutely nothing). You had elitists who wanted the institution of slavery to go on ad infinitum and conversely you had reformists (even some Southern ones) who wanted it abolished. Conscience vs. Cotton. Even the Democrats of the 1850s had a similar dilemma and would’ve come apart had the Whigs not done so first (and by 1860, the Democrats came undone as well, with the Northern and Southern factions splitting).
Which resulted in Abraham Lincoln getting elected without a majority. Or mandate.