In the mix of politics and government in any republic, stretches of governance are marked off by much shorter electoral seasons. As decision-points, election campaigns are not designed to be of a considerable duration, particularly relative to that of governing. In other words, the point of elections is governance, whereas the objective of governance is not (and thus should not be) elections. The reason is that the function of elected representatives is to govern rather than to run yet again. When the interstices become the long lines, and the long lines are reduced to interstices, one can expect popular fatigue from incessant fighting and frustration from a lack of attention on governing.
The full essay is at "Campaigning and Governing, American Style."