Of course this is a problem, because how can you expect people to abide by law they cannot understand? Worse, how can you communicate to people that they're incapable of understanding without being (or even just 'coming across as') condescending? I don't know, I don't have an answer. But when people like this: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/magazine/03european-t.html... show being absolutely oblivious to the mechanism (people who are for the rest presumably quite intelligent, and who - professionally - spend quite a bit of time on a piece like this), how can we expect the average citizen to really understand?
I guess it's a recent problem too - just 50 years ago people just listened to their banker about financial things and their doctor on medical things, and believed whatever they said, but we've long passed that point.