Issues. What issues?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-04-26/cassidy-laying-down-the-cudgels-and-debating-the-policy/4650944

"The issues are once more front and centre, free of the nasty distractions. If this continues, there's plenty of time before September to have a proper debate on policy"

Is politics about issues? Do we live in a functioning democracy? Are we distracted by these distractions and what is so nasty about them? Was the implied state where issues were not front and centre because of these nasty distractions a normal state or an aberration? Do we have a concept or template for shedding sufficient light on these questions to reveal their answer.

Take care Mr. Grasshopper, you are in danger of confusing yourself.

If a functioning democracy consists of an enlightened polity who debate important issues at length, test solutions to problems arrising from these issues and inform leaders how they must proceed, such that optimum courses of action are always pursued and the greater good increases, then there is no way we live in a functioning democracy. In such a system politics can only be about issues.

However, the system we live under is notionally labeled a democracy, with absolutely propagandistic cheek, and should therefore exhibit at least some of the above characteristics. The great fog of nasty distractions which descended on society just after the last federal election had the effect of forcing a deviation from ideal operation of this ponderous system and is now showing signs of lifting and carrying with it this effect, so that the system can now revert to its far-from-perfect ideal behaviour.