However this suggests that you expect something better from some groups;-

Even with the present meltdown, the "left" is showing no signs of understanding what sorts of steps need to be taken to avert an even bigger disaster. In the US Obama and his fellow Dems are timid, centrist, and unable to envision bold steps.

 But these groups are all the elites, they all went to the same schools, they all went to the same universities, they all got rich out of the system before they became politicians. So they don't see anything broken about the system; after all, it worked for them.

In the EU the situation seems even worse in that the better social services make people more complacent and less willing to address issues. The EU itself has become like spilled molasses, walking through it takes place one slow step at a time. Meanwhile Brown, Sarkozy, and their fellow mediocrities blunder on with trivia. The other parties aren't showing any leadership either.

Brown, Sarko are all dyed-in-the-wool products of the Cold War Atlanticism that has disfigured european politics for decades. They are true believers in America and the American mythology that anything is possible so long as you have a big enough military and so cannot imagine any other way of governing than by sacrificing their countries' national interests to America's. It worked before, so what's the problem ?

keep to the Fen Causeway