Missing elements of mutual respect and vigilance seem to have been removed from our Democracy

Once an early experiment in democracy, Australia has declined into a quagmire of unrepresentative governments at state and federal levels. Power games are played obsessively by most members of a narrowly recruited and self-serving political class whose only interest seems to be staying in power. Politics is not a vocation for these leeches on the Australian body politic, it has become their business.

Source: Nail in the coffin: Australia has run out of luck – Pearls and Irritations