Decent democracy

The decent, peaceful transition happening in White House currently from President Bush to President-elect Obama has left me wondering - why do we lack decency so much? What's the root cause? Why do we need to tolerate leaders who are in the news for abusing reporters, airport officers, mud-slinging at opposition for the sake of opposing,criminals....? Why? Why can't our leaders be self-respecting, decent human beings? Why? Why do they have to be noisy, indecent to be political leaders?