But this kind of electoral process seems to favour cautious position-taking (at least for the front-runners). Royal did have a promising theme about participative democracy - involving citizens more directly in decisions that concern them - but I don't think she got up steam with it as she might have. The result is that now, in terms of what has played during the campaign, it feels a bit like a discarded gadget.
applying the analogy of an art with art and fast rules to a creative process
"hard" in place of the second "art"?