G'day Ray,
AFD is only as toxic as you make it. We should all start by quiting 2-letter nominations (NN) using lone jargon words (cruft, non-notable, etc) and start explaining or reasoning based on references, google searches and specific reasons that can be argued. If newbies come across reasonably argued discussions in AFD the process would work a lot better.
Why should we expect newbies to have a doctorate in wiki-lawyering? Reasonable arguments should not depend on the ability to cite policy cruft.
Nononononono! *Regulars* should do this. When a newbie comes along to an AfD subpage he will then, hopefully, see a reasonable argument for why his article should be deleted (rather than "vanispamcruftisement by nn scoundrel, and my vote as nominator is speedy delete without references ~~~~").