A direct result of how our actual elected officials portray political life. They are spiteful with a know it all attitude along with complete lack of understanding of the way the system is supposed to work. Look, if you are a liberal and a notable elected Democrat, announce publicly that someone in the conservative party is a pig, they (the liberal voter) have a tendency to believe it, with the same being true of the opposite party.
The only way this will ever be cured is to fix it from the bottom up. Your local and state politicians are the future federal electorate, and if we start electing on not only credibility but also on integrity and esteem, while booting out Olberman and Limbaugh leaning creatures, then eventually our system will begin to heal. But until then (maybe never) we have to live with what we created and accept