Well, FASCINATING discussion, but I would peel it back to its basics.
Why does government exist? At its core, at its highest level, in a democratic society, it should exist to make decisions for the greater good of its people.
From there, opinions start splitting as to what is the greater good. Thus, the reason for multiple political parties with different ideology.
I think, and I say this as an outsider, a lot of that basic reason for existence is lost. In my country as well to some extent, but for totally different reasons than yours.
Generally, what is necessary?
- Create, pass and enforce laws to protect the general population
- Administer the public funds in a manner that is responsible to the people and for the people
- Protect the country from outside threat
That seems to be top 3 to me. How you do that is where you get into philosophical discussion.
It seems to be that a lot of your deficit was created outside of the scope of those 3 basic tenets. If I were American, I'd want to roast someone on the spit for the clusterfuck that's been created.