Spineless, unprincipled, constantly making excuses about why they're not doing anything, unwilling to do literally fucking ANYTHING to help the people they say they represent.
What are the underlying material conditions driving this?
Here in BC, Canada, the "social democratic" NDP government recently got a majority government, which means they can do literally anything they want. Pass any legislation they want. Pass any laws, any taxes, literally whatever the fuck they want.
And what have they done? FUCK ALL. Nothing. Not a single piece of legislation that I can think of. They're taking as long as they possibly can to implement $15 minimum wage, no paid sick days, no card check legislation, fucking NOTHING. Instead of using the pandemic as the obvious reason to pass this legislation they are hiding behind it as their excuse to avoid doing literally anything useful.
This seems to be the case all over the Western world.
WHY?
I'm listening to the Radio War Nerd episodes on Yeltsin dissolving parliament in 1993, and Ames said that the leader of the surviving Communist Party (Gennady Zyuganov) in the 1996 election basically backed off entirely in 1996 in a rigged election, and that the dude is just controlled opposition. 99% of the elected 'left' are the same, just keeping the seat warm until their dads and moms, backed by capitalists, assume power and further entrench wealth.
Look at Sanders - he confirmed Neera. He had the power to say 'No', he didn't and I'm sure his rationale is 'We have bigger problems, I'm a realist' but that's a complete betrayal of his ideology. Even if they have good intentions, all these people are co-opted by the system.