I just don't see it that way. We are a project based on consensus. That is how we've always operated. It's one of our greatest strengths.
I absolutely agree, as I imagine would anyone on this list.
One of our greatest weaknesses is when the media claims that things are run by a cabal.
I don't see how the media claiming something can be a weakness of us, that doesn't make sense. Do you mean it's one of the worst things for us? In which case, I agree - although I don't think enough people read The Register for it to make too much difference.
When decisions that affect the entire project can be made by a single person, and are, that's not a helpful situation. It's not true that anyone can help. Some action pages require admin action only. Regular editors who chose not to be admins, regardless of their project input, are sometimes and frequently ignored.
Having some things restricted to admins only is an unfortunate necessity. If you have a good alternative, please speak up. As for regular users being ignored, I just don't think that's true - people generally don't know if someone's an admin or not, they just know if they've seen them around a lot doing good stuff. Just look at all the RFA's with "Support. I thought you were already and admin.".
I've been in the project for over four years. I have almost 12 thousand edits. I sometimes feel like I'm fighting an uphill battle against entrenched "that's the way we've been doing things" even though those things are, imho, in violation of the project's core principles of being open, accessible, and consensus-driven.
Then you need to suggest a good alternative.
I can easily see how some in the media get the perception. Ignoring it, won't make it go away.
The media gets that perception because consensus driven decision making on such a large scale is very unusual and they just don't get it. Someone has a law (I can't be bothered to look up who): "Sufficiently many people working independently towards the same goal is indistinguishable from a conspiracy." (Or words to that effect.)