Economic "growth" seems to be doing less and less for most people. Its financial benefits mainly accrue at the very top of society; most people just get squeezed. Less housing, depressed wages, ever more crowded and less available services, the list of consequences of constant growth goes on.
The issue has a toxic element of anti-immigrant racism, but many are turning against the idea because they think the net negatives outweigh the positives. Switzerland's upcoming referendum is this in a microcosm. The right-wing anti-immigrant Swiss People's Party got 100,000 signatures to trigger their referendum, but support for the measure is also coming from outside their base. Polling has the result at near 50:50. If it passes, it will force a Western government to do something no one has ever had to do before - run a country where you cannot have endless economic growth.
Switzerland to vote on plan to cap population at 10mn: Country has 9.1mn permanent residents and experts fear the move will limit companies’ access to foreign talent
once we have a reliable way of "hey what should we do about this?" and people instantly giving direct feedback, the intermediaries - congress, senat, whateverthefuck - aren't needed no more
Yep.
https://plurality.net/
Here's an interesting crowd sourced book that discusses doing just that, digitally. The task you ate describing (currently an MP's job) is called 'broad listening'