They're much inclined to go in narrow directions. If you don't like the way I'm voting, throw me out. As far as leadership is concerned, leadership has to deal with the members. And leadership has got to follow the members and maybe run a little faster in the direction in which members are going in order to keep ahead of them. That's always been the case.
Leaders are weaker than they used to be.
They're much more likely to be challenged by their own caucuses or by bipartisan coalitions of their own party and opposition party members. They have less power than they used to have, and their power was always power that could only be exercised with the consent of the caucus. But they have less power now, they're held on shorter leashes. They lead less and appeal to their caucuses more. Expanding the arena of conflict beyond the legislature to groups and to the public through media issue campaigns makes compromise more difficult.