Very true. Indeed several of the books are about the culture dealing with some kind of (generally not serious) crisis. Most enlightening: the Culture was created initially as a setting for Use of Weapons

"They are mostly not about the Culture itself. Because it's boooooring."

This is why if we had the technology for a post-scarcity society on Earth there would be sets of people who would use this level of technology to do things like try to colonize Mars -- to the abject horror of the latte-sippers who would pen endless screeds about how foolish it is as they sit and sip latte.

Wait... did I even make up that last part?

I think the funniest thing about the books are the names of the ships. Things like: The 'Probably Not a Good Idea' dropped into orbit around the fourth planet.