The place of politics
Politicians have a tendency to think that politics is among the most important forms of human activity because they are themselves absorbed, sometimes obsessed by it. This is a mistake. There are many aspects of human life that are equally important, and some that are more so. But the curious thing about the managerial conception, with its emphasis of providing "services", is that it diminishes the activity to a mere means to other things and it reduces the citizen to a customer.

Gordon Graham The Case Against the Democratic State (2002)