politics will occur one way or another. I don't really have a problem with party politics, it at least has the benefit of housing various groups under one banner, making government possible for periods of years at a time.
I second this - it's the first thing I thought when I read the original post. Non-party independent politics isn't all some people might wish it to be. New Zealand had nearly forty years of party-less politics, from 1856 when the first responsible parliament sat until John Ballance united the progressive faction of parliament as the Liberal Party and won the 1891 election in a landslide. There were unofficial, loose "parties" during the period of independent politics, but they changed with the tide and revolved around single issues or personalities. If you look at the early to mid 1870s, when the central government dissolved the provincial system, you had two unofficial parties of centrists and provincialists, but good luck getting them to co-operate on any issue unrelated to the provinces.
In other words, the New Zealand parliament was rather chaotic and I'm often impressed they got as much done as they did, given how hard it was to keep enough people together to pass legislation. Just to illustrate the lack of stability for everyone, the following is the list of Prime Ministers (then styled as Premiers) who sat in the 35 years of party-less politics, and note that none died in office:
1856: Harry Sewell (just 13 days!)
1856: William Fox (also just 13 days!)
1856-61: Edward Stafford (longest single term of the lot)
1861-62: William Fox
1862-63: Alfred Domett
1863-64: Frederick Whitaker
1864-65: Frederick Weld
1865-69: Edward Stafford
1869-72: William Fox
1872: Edward Stafford (just a month)
1872-73: George Waterhouse
1873: William Fox (just a month)
1873-75: Julius Vogel
1875-76: Daniel Pollen
1876: Julius Vogel
1876-77: Harry Atkinson
1877-79: George Grey
1879-82: John Hall
1882-83: Frederick Whitaker
1883-84: Harry Atkinson
1884: Robert Stout (just 12 days!)
1884: Harry Atkinson (SIX days!)
1884-87: Robert Stout
1887-91: Harry Atkinson
In 35 years, there were thirteen different Prime Ministers with twenty-three changes of power (a change of government roughly every 1.5 years). By way of comparison, in the 118 years of party politics in New Zealand, the Prime Minister has changed twenty-six times, and the party in power has changed twelve times (a change of PM roughly every 4.5 years and a change of party roughly every 9.8 years - the latter stat is blown out by the fact the Liberals were the ONLY party in the early years and sat for 19 years, followed by Reform for 16 years).
So hopefully this is some food for thought for those who like the idea of all politicians being independent and the party system going the way of the dodo. A party system is much more stable; you may or may not consider that a virtue.
My own view is that politics will be politics, and I'd rather formalised parties I can actually somewhat know and follow rather than vague issue or personality-specific factions that change with every shift of the wind's direction.