How are they "manufactured controversy?" Do you think that there is a secret universal agreement on these issues? Seems unlikely.

Among the Religious Right in the US, it's very largely manufactured. Meaning: groups of people very deliberately chose two key issues (abortion and gay marriage) and created opposition movements where there weren't any before. A number of authors trace this, but you could try Randall Balmer for starters.

It's a mostly tacit agreement between a relatively small group of career rabble rousers and carpet-bagging politicians, building 'issues' to root their respective industries in.