I have a theory as to why REAL political leaders seem in such short supply.
Politicians have at their disposal an abundance of opinion polls.
Instead of someone who aspires to high office speaking his or her own mind, they speak what they think is the mind of the voters. They want to be sure that what they have to offer is politically popular or at least not politically unpopular. In days of old, there were no speechwriters our leaders wrote their own. You could pretty much count on what someone was saying as being their own beliefs. Now, you never know if what a speaker is saying is their own or some clever words crafted by a witty speechwriter.