More than a third of federal politicians are not satisfied with the way democracy works in Australia.
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But they are still more content with the nation's democracy than the general population.
Research body Democracy 2025 has revealed the insights after surveying 98 of the 226 politicians that made up the 45th federal parliament in December and January.
Of the group of politicians - which was skewed towards women, Labor and crossbench members - 61 per cent were satisfied with the way democracy is playing out across the country.
That compared with 40 per cent of the general population.
The politicians were asked about what changes could be made to get Australia's democracy in a better shape.
They were most likely to support parties and candidates being limited in how much cash they can splash during election campaigns and accept from donors.
Three-in-four (75.67 per cent) strongly agreed or agreed with the idea.
The next most popular ideas were federal MPs providing voters with details of their campaign pledges, and allowing Australians to submit e-petitions to parliament for some bills to be debated.
They weren't so keen on the idea of making parliament more representative by allocating a number of seats for particular groups.
Only 4.05 per cent supported doing so based on age, 8.22 per cent supported doing so based on ethnicity and 12.16 per cent would agree with doing so on the basis of gender.
Some politicians offered up their own suggestions for democratic improvements, with three suggesting four-year parliamentary terms to combat short-term thinking.
Three MPs suggested improving how representative parliament is by ensuring constitutional recognition of indigenous Australians.
Asked what they liked most about Australia's democracy, politicians and citizens both had fair and free elections and compulsory voting in their top three.
The politicians were also particularly pleased about political participation, while the general population was keen on freedom of speech.
There was more divergence in what the two groups didn't like, with the politicians ranking media misrepresentation, integrity issues and a focus on short-term objectives as the things they dislike most.
Citizens said they didn't appreciate the poor behaviour of politicians, poor leadership and adversarial politics.
The research group, Democracy 2025, was recently set up by the Museum of Australian Democracy and University of Canberra's Institute for Governance and Policy Analysis.
It hopes to improve public faith in democratic institutions.
Australian Associated Press
