Dysfunctional = Good

Following the lead of the Environmental Protection Agency, Education Secretary Arne Duncan recently used this imagined "dysfunction" as an excuse to try to unilaterally implement comprehensive education "reform" by bypassing law and using a waiver system. Why? "Right now," Duncan explained, "Congress is pretty dysfunctional. They're not getting stuff done."

Hate to break the news to you, Arne; for many Americans, stopping this administration from "getting stuff done" is getting stuff done.

The Founding Fathers rightly feared that the purer the democracy the more susceptible voters would be to the emotion of the moment and the demagogues who take advantage of it. Needless to say, we are democratic enough to get the politicians we deserve.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2011/08/10/sorry_guys_there_are_no_more_kings_110879.html

Functional would be good only if you think that government can "do good."  Government doing good is government that defends the right of individual citizens.  Since we're all bored with that quaint notion, and want government to right every wrong and cure every ill, which it cannot do, I like the do "dysfunction" just fine.