My parents were the same. Nothing actually got resolved, just steam was blown off and the timer reset till the next screaming match.
If you follow the MBTI personality model, they are likely to be sensing, judging types. Sensing types trust what they see and experience (sense), this is what they rely on. They don't really trust abstract concepts and that often means they miss the underlying reason for a problem (they see such thinking as mumbo jumbo, but they are quicker to spot it when that reason creates a visible, tangible problem in real life). Judging types need order and get very shitty if things don't work (ie they tend towards confrontation). So they spot an issue and it drives them crazy, they have a confrontation and blow off steam, but after a superficial fix they don't see the problem anymore. Until the underlying reason brings it up again.
