In times of war or conflict, power always flows to the executive branch. When times become more peaceful, Congress reasserts itself. One has to look no further than the extraordinary powers enjoined upon the Cold War presidents to see that this is nothing new.
However, I do agree with the premise that the public needs to be more aware and proactive. I just finished reading, "Soft News and Foreign Policy: How Expanding the Audience Changes the Policies," by Matthew A. Baum. As you might expect, more and more Americans are getting their political "information" from soft news sources, e.g., The Insider, Access Hollywood, The Daily Show, instead of the traditional "hard news" shows, e.g., Meet the Press, Face the Nation. Soft news consumers are markedly less educated and prefer 'cheap framing' and "sensationalized human drama."
This new genre is changing the political landscape. "Survey data reflect this pattern (Baum, 2003). For instance, when Gallup (1998) asked respondents to name the major problems facing the nation, soft news consumers without a college education were substantially more likely than their non-soft-news consuming or college-educated counterparts to mention issues involving foreign affairs/national security, terrorism, crime, scandal, or morality. These are the primary topics of most soft news outlets (Baum, 2003; Media Monitor, 1997)...Between 1966 and 1998, non-college-educated NES respondents grew increasingly likely to mention 'major problems' involving foreign affairs/national defense or public order--the latter of which primarily entails crime, morality, and scandal--and less likely to mention other types of political issues. This pattern weakens as education increases; among college-educated respondents there is no discernable trend (Baum, 2003). This evidence is circumstantial. Yet, these trends are precisely what one would anticipate if the rise of the soft news media had altered the content of political information attended to by relatively apolitical members of the public, while the nature and extent of information consumed by their more-politically engaged counterparts remained largely unchanged."
As a result, voting behavior has changed. People are much more interested in a 'likeable' candidate. "Millions of voters, in turn, base their votes more on candidates' personal characteristics--the predominate emphasis of soft news shows--than their policy positions, upon which traditional news outlets place relatively greater emphasis."