In all fairness, the problem has been around for a while and continues to grow. It's human nature that anyone with power is going to flex their muscles to see what they can do. And Congress has a poor record of reigning in the executive in terms of balancing power.
The reality of it is that Obama knows that there's no way Congress would ever move to impeach based on violations of the Constitution (not saying this is an impeachable offense, just using this as an example). With no threat of serious reprisal, he's going to keep making more and more end runs.
Someone who will go unnamed laughed at me earlier for suggesting that Congress' problem with popularity is related to their inability to speak with a single voice to the American people and point a finger, as can be done by the President. That's why individual congressmen are generally pretty popular with their constituents - it's harder to hate a face and a voice than it is a faceless, nameless entity representing other people's interests beside your own. But I can't imagine even disputing this truth.
As a result, Congress knows (not just this one, but ones before) that any call to impeach a president - regardless of how right it may be - is going to be viewed with contempt, ridicule and skepticism by the press and the public, because it will always be framed as political in nature.
Clinton had to have sex with an intern - which would have gotten any CEO in America a golden parachute - for anything to happen to him, and even then it was treated as a witch hunt. Obama could wipe his butt with the constitution for the next three years, and nothing will happen because this Congress has bought into the notion that it's too traumatizing to our country to bring down a president for anything other than outright criminal activity.
As a result, I'm afraid we're headed more and more toward centralized power - and I'm not focusing on Obama here, although he clearly is going to take that ball and run with it. This has been coming for a while now, and it needs to be addressed.
