Yup.
We had a similar problem here in Canada.
When things went bad after 9/11, the media talked about a "democratic deficit", a war on the poor, and a war on the middle class.
   The media was saying Liberal Jean Chretien had been pushing Canada relentlessly to the right wing. When he was retiring, Chretien badly needed some kind of liberal legacy. So he passed legislation legalizing same sex marriage.
 Ever since, the deterioration of democracy,  endless wars, the surveillance state and even the devastating consequences of the 2008 recession, have been obscured behind "identity politics".
  The corporate media establishment will say anything, push any multinational corporatist agenda, to avoid what the majority wants - a less rigged, less unequal economy that works for all.