[sashahart]

There is plentiful demand for 'effective government,' and a total lack of consensus on what it means.

In politics, 'effective' really means 'does what I want.' When there is a lot of conflict about what people want, the government is not 'effective' because (A) deadlock is frustrating and (B) yelling louder is a way to get more and intimidate the opposition.

A government is less like a "singular intelligent self-modifying system" and more like a war on controlled burn.