IMO the division between Ideology, Factions and Government policy ideas is an odd one that fails. Fundamentally in this game. I don't feel connected to them in any way:

Policy: can change, seemingly at my whim which REALLY sucks and disconnects me from any feeling of governing; And the + tied to - of the policies is a real low level mistake- it makes selecting any of them non beneficial beyond heart of the empire.  I usually select Heart and then neglect this.

Ideology: a bit more powerful than policy and beneficial, but is locked in once selected- which sucks, because ideologies, if anything, are subject to change, and deeply so over time- they should be selected spontaneously as I make decisions, not just unlock and when I minimax crap. And if my behavior in the game is clearly leaning toward another direction, we should LOSE one in favor of one more suitable. The way GC3 handled this feeling of your empire was so superior to GC4. I usually play this part of the game but just milk it and forget it. It's not like moving down a tree even moves you to progressively more interesting things like in GC3- I actually CARED about those choices and pondered that choice awhile in my games! So I don't even commit to any tree- and I can claim the top or the bottom of the tree once unlocked anyway. Weird.

Factions: are some sort of weak idea that the people and citizens of my realm matter at all. They don't. They just don't. I don't play this part of the game at all. It just sits there, unused. Meaningless to the game.

Executive Orders: Doesn't matter what my civilization is like- we ALL get the same ones. Yawn. And really, they are hidden mana charged powerups ala any Paradox game, but especially the nightmare that is EUIV... charging charging... charging.... USE. Charging... charging... charging.... USE. UGH!

All of this "shaping" my realm stuff in the game feels like a huge step down from GC2's government elections and managing the body politic and a step down from GC3 (which was even lower than GC2) where we switched government to milk benefits as we moved along in some sort of evolving but always getting more powerful way. It certainly feels like GC3's evolving feel of your realm (good/neutral/bad whatever they were) was disrespected bigtime.