It happens every time one party controls all branches of government. The lawmaking process is “streamlined,” minority members are ignored and the shades are closed to the public. It happened when the Democrats controlled Congress, and it’s happening now.

Recently, the Boston Globe published an in-depth report showing that Congress is as buttoned up as it’s ever been. The strength of the report is that it travels back to when Democrats controlled all three branches to find the roots of the abuse.

Democrats agree that the downward spiral began with them, and they now confess their sins of abuse. It’s tempting to dismiss their newfound respect for open government and fair play as partisan whining, but the current state of affairs is corrosive on many levels. It exacerbates the partisan divide and stokes the nasty rhetoric; it disrespects the traditions of open debate and thoughtful compromise, and it shields the decision-making from the public.

The Globe found that the nerve center of any hyper-controlled Congress is the House Rules Committee. Back when the Democrats last controlled Congress they sealed their current fate by limiting the number of minority party members on that panel. That cleared the way for the majority to float or sink any legislation.

The change allows leadership to control which bills can be open for amendments. Democrats so abused this in the 1993-94 session that Republicans vowed reforms that would open nearly all bills to amendments. As The Globe shows, the opposite has happened. In the 1977-78 session, the House delivered 85 percent of nonappropriations bills under open rules, meaning they could be amended. Last year, the figure was 15 percent. On top of that, the Rules Committee is making substantive changes to bills once they pass out of committee.

House leadership has the process on such a fast track that many members only have two- or three-day work weeks. Many members return to their districts on Thursdays, leaving them little time to get to know each other. Congress is scheduled to work 102 days this year. In a typical year, members work 140 days.

Bills move so quickly through the system that many members don’t have time to read them before voting. And votes are often cast in the wee hours, away from the media glare and the prying eyes of the public. The debate over the Iraq war resolution took only two days. The controversial search-and-seizure provisions of the Patriot Act were handled in one day.

Meanwhile, House-Senate conference committees are adding provisions that are never debated. It’s become more difficult to explain legislation to constituents. Members of Congress are still unearthing surprising provisions from the Medicare prescription bill that was signed into law last December.

There’s nothing deliberative about this body. It needs to slow down and open up the process. Democracy shouldn’t be practiced on the fly or in the dark.