Governments in the United States and Britain are paralysed by uncertainty while politicians battle over who takes control.
US President Barak Obama is effectively shackled from taking any major political decisions while he sits out his remaining time in office awaiting the result of the race for the Whitehouse between Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton.
The Presidential election campaign has quietened down while the pair gain their party’s official recognition that they will contest the election in November.
The battle is not over then as the new President is not sworn in until January 2017.
In Britain, Prime Minister David Cameron has resigned as the result of the Brexit referendum.
Britain in limbo
Cameron led the campaign to remain in the European Union and felt his position untenable in negotiating the terms to leave the bloc.
A leadership battle is underway between Home Secretary Theresa May, an EU supporter, and Justice Secretary Michael Gove, a Brexit campaigner.
Other heavyweights such as Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne and Brexit senior campaigner Boris Johnson have declined to take part in leadership battle.
No final result is expected until September, leaving Britain in limbo with the EU as Cameron refuses to trigger the exit procedure, much to the chagrin of other European politicians.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Houses of Parliament, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is facing a coup by MPS who question he has the leadership skills to win the next election.
Limited choice for voters
MPs returned a stinging 172-40 defeat in a vote of no-confidence.
Corbyn is refusing to go because he claims he has a mandate from the grassroots party and unions, but 50 MPs have resigned from his Shadow Cabinet this week clearly leaving him with no way to mount an effective opposition in Parliament.
Besides no one being in control, the political vacuums in the USA and Britain highlight that who chooses the people in power lies in the hands of relatively few party activists.
Although the wider electorate vote for their leaders and other political representatives, the choice of who those people are is out of their hands and firmly comes down to the personalities, behind-the-scenes horse trading and preferences of activists.