Razib Khan used to be a fan of gridlock, but now he's not so sure:
[C]onsider Cameron’s austerity drive in the UK or the rollback of Swedish socialism. Public expenditures were 71 percent of Swedish GDP in 1993, and are now 52 percent!
We are a nation of laws first and foremost. But sometimes laws were written and designed for conditions which no longer hold. Over the next few generations we’ll be facing major structural obstacles to the maintenance of current government services. Politicians will need some power to clean house, or the house will burn down.
They have that power. They're just too afraid to use it. It isn't the system that's preventing a fiscal reckoning before it's too late - it's the politicians and the voters who reward the cowards and punish the grownups.