Further, you have a class of individuals whose job is to make new laws (Congress and its machinations, as well as the state and municipal equivalents). If they don't make laws, the perception is that they are not doing their job. It was the same frustration with the parlements and the resulting legal culture that helped ferment the French Revolution.
There are some great parallels with the FR here -- more and more mob unrest, little education as to why and how the political system works the way it does, an overpowering debt that resists easy solutions, endless negotiations and patchwork fixes,etc.
