I think the urge to create norms is very natural, but they're extremely difficult to create. And I would argue that a lot of what's disturbing about the world right now is the erosion of those norms. We're left with either no obedience, disobedience to the enforceable and facing the choice of having to legislate improvements. The filibuster was a rule that even an individual senator can hold up debate basically an inevitable indefinitely. Now it requires de facto three-fifths of the Senate rather than 51% of the Senate to pass any legislation at all. This means that we are on the verge of losing a norm in the US Senate which I think is very valuable.
Civilization and the pleasantness of everyday life depend on unwritten rules. Early in the 20th century, an English mathematician and government official, Lord Moulton, described complying with these rules as "obedience to the unenforceable"--the area of personal choice that falls between illegal acts and complete freedom. Listen as economist Michael Munger talks with EconTalk's Russ Roberts about the power and challenge of the unenforceable.