Democracy is awesome in theory - majority rules, and we get to watch funny cartoons about a little boy and a rolled up piece of paper, singing catchy tunes about the government.   
The world is fucked, and even though we all drive cars, and have cell phones - we're no exception.
I think the problem is that we vote for people .... pathological liars, with their own agenda, actually.  We all bitch about campaign promises never coming to fruition, and the 194 government owned golf courses that each cost millions in tax money every year to operate. 
If you're like me, you've found yourself watching the latest bullshit about what laws congress are trying to pass, and all the bullshit politics that are involved in getting that shit done.  And if you're like me, you at one point said "Fuck it - just put it to vote".   And by that I don't mean letting the politics vote, I mean letting us decide.  
Take gay marriage for example.  Some are against it, some are not.  Instead of letting the personal opinion of a couple hundred assholes determine whether or not gay people can enter a contract with each other, why don't we go the democracy route and ask us what the majority of the population wants done?   Just like we go and vote to put someone in office, but instead of politicians, we vote for policy.
This way, you can vote on individual topics, instead of voting for one side on many different topics.  Because that's what it is.  You can't just hate gays, and not immigrants.  You can't be pro-pot, and against abortion.   Well you can, just not with voting. 
Besides, most if not all politicians - at least the ones who have climbed over enough of their colleagues, are in it for themselves.  If they wanted to make a positive imprint on society - they would work at a municipal level, or better yet - join a charity for a cause they feel strongly about.    I don't at all blame them for this one bit.  We are a finance focused society, and most if not all of us have sacrificed at least one part of our being in the name of making a buck.   Politicians are just climbing the corporate ladder like they would for any other job. 
We still need them to crunch numbers, enforce policy, and what not.  But we don't need them to call the shots.  That's supposed to be our job, and their opinion shouldn't fucking matter.   It's not even their opinion in many cases.  They'll just say whatever their PR guys tells them to say, and it's all just to get a majority vote.
Another thing about voting - count that shit properly!  I'm disgusted when I hear about selective counting.   Just count every fucking vote ONCE for fuck's sake!   It's not democracy if you only count the ballots of "predominantly democratic / republican" areas, and not others. 
A polticians job should be much more simple.  Propose the law - like a business plan, write the law, and present it to the public for a vote.  Once we know what the country wants, it's their job to shuffle the money around.   This goes for every law.  I believe that people would be more involved in their government.

However, this is exactly what government, and the corporations who run government, do not want you to have.  Freedom.  Transparency.  Power.  They want enough of a false sense of freedom and power to keep us at bay - but believing this allows them to take away our rights one by one.