It works both directions...
The Washington Crowd is convinced that all of America is waiting to hear every fart they emit. I have seen several polls where they ask about opinions on this bigwig or that one, and the pollster adds one question that you rarely see in polls, along the lines of "do you know who this is?" The "no" answers sometimes approach the 50 percent zone. I remember a Karl Rove poll like that.
The hard truth is that people with normal lives don't think that much about national politics. And as the writer pointed out, if our government was the way it was supposed to be, they wouldn't have to.