FWIW, while I appreciate that federal government is pretty broken, it is worth at least understanding that that isn't always how it works, or really even how it

FWIW, while I appreciate that federal government is pretty broken, it is worth at least understanding that that isn't always how it works, or really even how it is supposed to work at the federal level either: at my level of government, for example, if "all the real meaty discussion takes place outside", that is actually illegal, due to California's Brown Act, which enforces open government transparency; the premise is that all meetings must take place in the public so the public can know the how and why behind decisions, and the public must even be able to interact with the meeting.