We the people are theoretically in charge yet the people we elect are busy posturing and refuse to compromise and so are unable to govern and solve our country’s problems.  The obvious conclusion is that there is just too much partisanship.

Nearly everyone would agree with that but very few have any ideas about fixing the problem

Mickey Edwards expressed these ideas and suggested a few solutions in the  Atlantic .

Then he expanded these ideas into a book, The Parties Versus the People: How to Turn Republicans and Democrats into Americans.  Mickey Edwards had been a congressman and then a professor of government so he knows what he is talking about. 

The overriding theme is that we have given up too much of our control to the 2 major political parties.   This is done on several levels. 

Parties limit our choices to a few candidates.  This is particularly true in states where ballot access is limited and/or primaries are open only to members of a political party.

Once one of these candidates is “in”, he or she is then beholden to the party for both current power in office (example committee assignments in Congress) and the chance to be re-elected.