This gives them plausable deniability, while, at the same time, giving them exactly what they most desire.....more power with which to rule/control the peasants.
They no longer rule. The branch of goverment that was once the most equal has been reduced to debating about junk like desecrating the American flag while the country is run by the Executive bureaucracy in partnership with the courts. Passing vague bills to be enforced by the bureaucrats gives them deniability when their constituents start complaining: "We never intended that."