I agree with your analysis, but there's always the example of PHON - they had a message that resonated with a particular group and was deemed newsworthy. The free promotion that they got from the media was incredible.

The role of government is to make people's lives better than they would be without government. In that sense, I think that the role needs to be increased - the current problem is that it's being ignored in favour of doing favours for the coal industry, etc.

Have you read Gave of Mates by Cameron Murray?