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there are actual rules to debate and logic that are available to anyone who wants to read and follow them. If some moderators are motivated enough to up the discourse, they could bone up on the logical fallacies and point out red herrings, ad hominems, poisening the well attacks, appeals to emotion/authority, & etc.
it doesn't seem all that difficult to pick up on insults, insinuated or explicit. But for some reason only blatant insults used to be processed as such while poisoning the well attacks went unchallenged. both that and ad hominem attacks undermine an argument by attacking the person making them. I mean, if we were to follow this a useful sticky would be a compendium of logical fallacies.
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