In recent decades once-thriving branches have closed and others have become shadows of their former selves.

A relative handful of people now control, through the rank and file preselection process, the mechanism that determines who will represent many thousands of voters in the nation's parliaments.

Democracy is the loser. Sick party branches may invite the attention of predatory stackers or preselect weak candidates, tempting the party's head office to parachute its own hand-picked individuals into affected seats.

It's a sad situation, but one in which the Labor Party is not alone. The Liberals too are suffering the same democratic decay and destructive factional in-fighting.

The National Party bears little resemblance to the once-proud Country Party. The Australian Democrats are history and the Greens are still struggling to make the shift from a single-issue party to an organisation of broad appeal.

In Labor's case, the more that machine politics gains the upper hand, the less appealing the party becomes to potential new recruits. Factional battles for control of branches, preselections and party rules and policies lead to deep conflicts and enmities similar to those that have paralysed Newcastle's prospects for progress over many years.

It would be unfair to suggest that the party has no interest in reform. On the contrary, reform is a point of constant discussion in the ALP, but progress is slow, spasmodic and too plainly opposed by vested interests unwilling to loosen their grip on control.

While member numbers are in decline, the machine operators in the head offices appear obsessed chiefly with gaining and holding office and with attracting ever-higher levels of campaign donations. Party leaders continually pay lip-service to the need for reform of election financing, but practical progress towards that goal seems as elusive as the removal of barriers to wider party membership.