Is politics just reality TV to be watched by viewers who think they are smart?

I include myself in this. It's personality battles and morality tales and did he didn't she. We care about the issues but individual characters give us the emotional connection to the soap opera. Because of that, the said issues often get lost in all the noise and we just end up cheering when the other team gets someone voted off the island. Meanwhile the world keeps spinning... and slowly gets worse.