I believe that Buckminster Fuller's idea of the Trim tab is critical to understanding current stagnation of politics in Washington.

The small changes that would lead to big socially beneficial changes in Policy are not made because political people are busy making the small changes which will lead to bigger changes that are benificial to specific interests which they foster.
I am saying that unless the trim tab principal is openly discussed in government, vested interests will continue to employ it for narrow interests only.
A corrolary of this is that the public sector does have a special power which can be used to obtain leverage over social issues thru the leverage of the trim tab applied to the social rudder of a new policy applied to society..