Cleese asks, "Where's the Outrage?" I think what he has to understand that to many Americans, government, especially the Federal Government, really doesn't matter much in terms of our daily lives (at least up to now). We are consumed with our own lives, our families, our careers to really care too much about what happens in Washington. It's just another TV show, where we watch the characters and ridicule them. In reality, what goes on at our local town council meetings impact our lives much more than what happens in Washington DC. (Not that anyone is particularly paying attention to what goes on there either).
Whereas I think in Britain, people take the government much more seriously, and demand much more from it. They are conditioned to expecting government to be the solution. Unfortunately, it seems now we seem to be moving in that direction more than ever.