WASHINGTON — A long-simmering feud between establishment Republicans and tea partyers broke into full view, with Sen. John McCain accusing younger colleagues of overplaying their hands and tempting Democrats to change Senate rules that protect the minority party.

Tactics for dealing with the government’s budget and debt became the latest quarrel in a string of them between McCain — sometimes joined by other traditionalist Republicans — and tea party champions such as Ted Cruz of Texas, Rand Paul of Kentucky, Mike Lee of Utah and Marco Rubio of Florida.

Those four won Senate seats by defying the party establishment, and are shaking up the Senate with no-compromise, no-apology stands on key issues like deficits, spending and the use of drones in the war on terrorism.

McCain, who was the party’s 2008 presidential nominee, is among those who say a minority party will accomplish little in the Senate if it can’t find ways to cut deals with the majority.

Cruz, who like Paul is weighing a 2016 presidential bid, renewed his taunts of the party establishment in a speech Thursday on the Senate floor. The more accommodating Republicans, he said, are in cahoots with Democrats to raise the government’s borrowing limit by disabling the GOP’s ability to mount a filibuster threat that could be used to extract spending cuts from Democrats and the White House.

Earlier in the day, Lee said Republicans should block a House-Senate conference designed to resolve budget differences because it might ease the Democrats’ effort to raise the government’s borrowing limit. That rankled the sometimes cantankerous McCain, of Arizona. He said the tea partyers’ tactics could embolden Democrats who are threatening to change Senate rules that now allow the minority party — or even just one senator — to block various actions.

“That would be the most disastrous outcome that I could ever imagine,” McCain said.