Interesting ontology. If politics is exertion, what do you call the passive observance or determination of extant power balances?
well, my definition is admittedly a little bit of an extrapolation from the greek root (city affairs), but it's common in writings about government and power. that's because you can't govern a group of people without the exertion of power (making people do things they may otherwise not do, like throwing trash on the ground as a benign example).
so you don't necessarily need a separate word or phrase for the observance of political parties and other governmental actors as they exert power--that's just "watching politics".
no. politics, by definition, is the exertion of power, and that is "poisonous", in the sense that someone will not like it, and will, if possible, resist and potentially counter-attack.
it's an interesting mental exercise to consider whether or not all unhappiness stems from the application of power.