IMHO Typically what is genuinely off-topic is glaringly obvious.
Whether the "common" users or moderators move to close those questions is a question of who gets there first. Typically nobody disagrees that those should not be front-page news.
The last year I have been more active and I have not seen much of the flame wars that used to plague usenet. If that's the result of successful moderation or the community at work, I don't know. But the site works in that regard.
an example: A question like thisthis with quite a few down-votes but also a possibly excessively up-voted answer does not need moderator slamming. The community works there.
Non-moderators don't see what moderators do (I think). Once you get some rep you, me and everybody does see some/all of the review queues, where participation is possibly not as wide-spread as wanted, but at least multiple eye-balls are at work. That appears to work too, but the queues are getting longer.
In contrast, what a community leader is slightly less clear. I have no idea actually. From what I see from the front of the site, what goes on behind the scenes is not broken.
