Stephen Emlund/iStock(NEW YORK) — In January, when President Joe Biden took office and Democrats secured both chambers of Congress, millions of Americans had high hopes that the laundry list of causes touted on the campaign trail would become reality. They had promised action on voting, elections and policing reform, on immigration and infrastructure. They touted sweeping programs now in Democrats' social spending bills, addressing issues they said Americans care about most, from child care to climate change. But this week's failure by Senate Democrats' latest effort to even start debate on a voting rights bill, their first piece of legislation to pass the House, is just the latest blow to Biden's campaign agenda and the vow Democrats made to preserve Americans' most fundamental right in the wake of the 2020 election's "Big Lie." Many Democrats who expected more are frustrated. "You've got real Americans that have spent time and energy in promoting supporting these plans," said Domini Bryant, a social worker in Houston told ABC News. "I don't have time to deal with the political rhetoric that is happening in our world right now because all that is happening is real people -- real working people -- are getting dumped on." "We're still allowing 'Big Lie' rhetoric to reign supreme when you have real issues happening out here, like the fact that there have been millions of dollars put towards this pandemic recovery yet you still have thousands of people homeless right now," she added. It's no secret Biden and congressional Democrats are having trouble with their own self-imposed deadlines -- such as missing policing reform by the anniversary of the death of George Floyd in May, although a majority of Americans say major changes are needed to policing. Since Democrats control both Congress and the White House -- why haven't they been able to achieve their legislative priorities? With Biden's approval rating sinking, and congressional midterms nearly one year away, experts ABC News spoke with are predicting Democrats could pay a high price for their perceived inaction. "Most Americans believe that government should be helping solve our problems and that compromise is better than obstruction," said Jennifer Lawless, a political science professor at the University of Virginia. "But the incentives for our elected leaders to do compromise has dissipated, creating a vicious cycle where we're seeing less action on what the average American wants. By the same token, there's also a very, very little incentive for the elected leaders to deliver moderation, because there'll be primary, and they'll lose." Frances Lee, a political scientist and professor at Princeton University, said that although this Congress is deadlocked on high-profile legislation, it has been productive in responding to coronavirus crisis, pointing to the American Rescue Plan passing in March -- although it did so without any Republican support. "It's a tale of two cities," she told ABC News. "On the one hand, this Congress has impressive crisis response, and on the other, a stalemate on issues that aren't necessarily connected to that crisis." GOP's strategy of obstruction Shortly after Barack Obama was elected in 2008, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said the "single most important thing" for Republicans was to make him a one-term president. McConnell would go on to do everything possible to prevent Obama from achieving major legislative wins. "And that's basically been the strategy that the Republicans have employed for the last 12 years," said Lawless. "It doesn't matter if the Republicans could also claim credit for something that will be good for the American people or advance the economic interests of their state or their district. Republicans are now viewing any Democratic victory as separate and apart from their own interests," she said. "This has now become a sort of permissible way to govern, whereas prior to that point, I think most legislators would not have wanted the American people to know that they were more interested in obstructing than they were in governing." That kind of strategy makes bipartisanship and cooperation exceedingly rare, experts said, and in many cases, not even pursued, which has heightened internal strife in the parties. "Thirty years ago, forty years ago, if you had two members of your own party who weren't in love with a bill, you'd cross party lines and you'd see if you could find some allies there, but that's just not a viable strategy anymore," she added. She said the current stalemate over raising the debt ceiling provides the perfect example of McConnell's strategy. Republicans for months have said that Democrats would need to act on their own to raise the debt limit because they have total political control of Washington and are planning to pass a multi-trillion social and economic package with zero input from Republicans. "They've made the case to their constituents and to Republican voters across the country that doing nothing is better than governing from the 'socialist left,'" Lawless said. Democrats, meanwhile, have argued raising the debt limit is a bipartisan responsibility, in part, because it covers spending that already took place under the Trump administration with unified GOP support. "Republicans just have to let us do our job," Biden said in a speech last month on the nation's debt limit. "Just get out of the way. If you don't want to help save the country, get out of the way so you don't destroy it." A recent poll from Politico/Morning Consult suggested that public opinion may not push either party to change direction. Overall, 31% of registered voters said they would mostly blame Democrats if the country defaults on its debt, while 20% said they would primarily blame Republicans. Thirty-nine percent said they would blame both parties equally. "We expect our elected officials to deal with complicated issues like that," said Jeremy Gelman, who wrote the book, "Losing to Win: Why Congressional Majorities Play Politics Instead of Make Laws." "But making it seem like your opponents don't have it together, that's good politics." Loyalty to the filibuster With a majority in the House of Representatives and Vice President Kamala Harris holding the tie-breaking vote in the Senate, Democrats could, in theory, pass their legislative priorities without Republican support. But not while the Senate filibuster rule stands in their way. While legislation dealing with the budget can go through the reconciliation process and pass without GOP support, as was done with the American Rescue Plan in March, the Senate requires 60 votes for "cloture" -- to end debate on a piece of legislation so it can proceed to a final vote, which then, in most cases, requires a simple majority to pass. In short, without 60 Senate votes, a piece of legislation doesn't even have a chance of being voted upon. "That means that unless there is complete unity among Democrats in the Senate, the bill is already a non-starter. Every single member can hold a package hostage for their litmus tests," Lawless said. "And on bills that can't go through the reconciliation process, without 10 Republican votes, they're dead on arrival." For four months under Obama, Democrats did have 60 votes in the Senate and, therefore, total control of Congress. It was during that slim window that Obamacare passed in the Senate with all 60 Democratic votes. Progressives in 2021 argue Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, who call themselves moderates and have staunchly opposed ending the filibuster, should help carve out an exception to push over the line key reforms, especially on the fundamental issue of voting rights, that they and fellow Democrats were elected