Accountability is crucial for the functioning of any democracy, where those who govern are assumed to have a high degree of responsibility toward those who are governed.
However, the days are long gone when an unhappy populace could turn to torches and pitchforks to revolt against a negligent ruler. Accountability in politics has evolved from this more direct and raw expression of sovereignty, and now takes many covert and dissipated forms which are not as easily discernible; and this has a purpose.