While it is true that there is too much focus on .... uhm .... spectacle as you call it, and not enough on what is going on, I think the same is true for most "western nations". You'd shake your head if you saw the Norwegian news...
Sure, there is stuff about the war in Syria..... there is even more about the US election, and yet more about the "scandal" of a Norwegian athlete being caught using a medicine which is listed as an illegal drug, and healthy athletes using asthma medicine. (As if that was the main worry of the earth)