It's more an issue of desensitization through frustration. I think some are struggling with the fact that they have no control over the direction of their future, due to the menial effect that a personal revolution can have on electoral college (or any large scale public infrastructure). How do you influence mandate change (or social change in any capacity) when the system is set up to provide you with a predetermined binary choice? Neither true or false, just luke warm... temperate enough not to agitate, and quantified to a degree that results are vindicated through vague circumstance.
Why do the preceeding comments all have a political connotation? It seems that there is a parallel between the relative inactivity of society, and the attitude towards leadership... is it simply a government imposed self-inadequacy that creates an unconscious mass doubt? A doubt large in its presence requiring the security and validation of democratic process? In the end we're all chasing the tail of legitimacy, only to realize we're too tired to engage the rotary-action fabrication. No, it's much easier to let the machine run on automatic, and toil within the meaning of our own doubt and incompetency. Material just makes those things go away for awhile; an appeasing quality no matter how ephemeral the fix.