The essay analyses the decline of public debate in Parliament, in the contest of the long-lasting crisis of the Italian parliamentary system. The reduction and marginalization of public debate put in crisis the method and meanings of parliamentary deliberation as well as the exercise of parliamentary functions. This malfunctioning endangers a fundamental principle of parliamentarism and determines a growing lack of the accountability of representative organs. The essay analyses facts and events in the first year of the XVIII legislature, showing the loss of meaning, essence and purpose in parliamentary public debate. Starting from these arguments, the author looks forward a reform of parliamentary rules, able to restore the parliamentary po...