I think a more subtle solution (a thus politically viable) would be to attach a filter to the front of the current political system. Right now, we get sports stadium style debates filled with sounds bites, pretense, and timely rhetoric, which encourage showmanship over substance. A cooler, internet based debate system could crowd source better policies and politicians. An interactive system for judging the debates and commenting could increase exposure and decrease apathy for the "voters".

It could be a platform where people "run" and "vote" on candidates. Debates could be structured in some sort of tournament system, where winners are determined by voters who are directed to them evenly. The debate topics could be decided on before hand by the voters, once again by voting their interests. At the end of it, there would be a few filtered candidates, who would have a series of well formed and observable views on each of the topics defined by the voters. The whole system would have no legitimate political tie in, but the win there could be used to prefilter their conventional run, and provide a history to go on.

There are some substantial details I overlooked there, a big one being how to make sure the votes are legitimate. But if enacted, I think it would take our political system a long way towards a true democracy.