Lawmakers on Capitol Hill are on the brink of letting their nation slide over the so-called fiscal cliff - leaving senators to fume that nobody does dysfunction better than Congress.

US citizens would likely agree. The country's elected representatives have long been derided as hapless slackers. But this year, with a fiscal crisis now staring at people like a deer in the headlights, it's different.

The 112th Congress is being seen as the least effective in decades.