Oh, I know exactly what you mean. From an old piece at The Conservative Woman (internal links should still work):

In my five years in London, my incredulity over the UK populace’s patient waiting for authority became a common writing theme.

I saw it in the weather, when ice covered the sidewalks for days because the crews or Mother Nature take care of that sort of thing. I saw it in the citizenship test, which does not ask hopeful citizens to learn what is expected of them as responsible citizens but instead informs them of all of the perks and protections the British government owes to them. I saw the passivity in the London riots and the Woolwich murder.

Waiting for leaders? With rare exception, political office holders act on polls. Waiting for politicians to act decisively when the populace itself has largely forgotten how it might act — one might as well wait for Godot.