Does our paying attention make any difference? Everyone seems to feel rather fucked don't they?
I was talking with a buddy about this last year, and if I recall correctly here's his take on it - the process of governing has become very complex and unwieldy, so the politicians are constantly relying on the bureaucrats in the civil service to do most of the work. They are the ones, when policy and laws are to be made, who do the actual leg-work and figure out what needs to be done. Then they are the ones who draw up the paperwork, which they then pass on to the politicians to have a peek at. Being a civil servant also means that you are the people who have to implement that stuff, work with it, and live with the consequences, long after the politicians who requested it have left office. So you're probably going to draw up something that makes your life easier, either through less work/blame, and/or or more access to perks(graft) that comes from those who will be doing business with you. Since we don't get to elect the bureaucrats, and since they are around for decades, they are actually the ones that are giving it to us up the ass.
Dunno, I'm not a political junkie or economist, but it doesn't sound too far-fetched. I've often thought that the old British shows Yes Minister and Yes Prime Minister may have been closer to the truth than we realise. If you recall them, it was his assistant Sir Humphrey Appleby who was really the guy in charge.
