Are We Getting the Governments We Deserve?

The other day someone put to me that we are getting the politicians we deserve, and they were absolutely right: I didn't really need to think about it.

My personal theory as to why is that politics has become professionalised becasue public involvement in political parties has dropped away so much. Party memberships used to be huge, but, for whatever reason*, memberships have fallen to less than 20% of what they were in the 60s and 70s.

The effects of that are that the talent pool is smaller and has left a high proportion of true believers in place. They're dangerous as it's a narrow form of belief that's become a replacement for religion in out secular society - and belief does not submit to reason or brook argument. 

I've been a member of a couple of political parties and the degree of unquestioning groupthink, requirement to adhere to doctrine, intolerance of dissent in any form, lack of reasoning and sceptical analysis, and psychopathology of unresolved personal issues bleeding into public life, was worrying (sometimes terrifying), considering they are choosing who is to lead the country.

*Reasons I'd speculate on. 

• We are time poor because we work more and pursue pleasure more ardently than service, a notion that seems to have dropped out of public awareness. 
• That politics has become deeply unfashionable and is seen as dull, uninteresting and run by unattractive, swivel-eyed ideologues. 
• That politics is now a profession, and like most professional organisations, the management dislikes and discourages too much scrutiny. 
• That politics has become so niche that the idea of broad church parties that might attract a broader selection of people and ideas has fallen by the wayside because it would require negotiating on particular articles of a strictured faith.