The shul gabbai, used to be known as the sexton or the beadle, is a position with much responsibility. The gabbai has to deal with all the shul issues vis a vis the public, and has to manage the services efficiently and carefully. He has to know who needs an aliya when, who needs to be asked to lead the services, who will be insulted by this or that, who has a yahrtzeit, juggle the needs of many congregants, etc. Some gabbaim do a fabulous job and some do not, but the job and responsibility taken on by them, even by the weaker ones, is a thankless position with a lot of work and responsibility.

Yesterday the Habayit Hayehudi political party held a vote on changing its constitution. There was very vocal opposition to the changes being proposed, and Naftali Bennet said something unusual, to categorize the opposition.

Bennet wanted to say that those opposing the changes want the party to continue to focus on affairs of religion, and not get involved in State issues, diplomacy, foreign affairs, etc., while he is leading the party towards a position of leadership in the country. What Bennet said was, "The opponents to the new constitution are interested in bringing us back to being shul gabbais".

An organization of synagogues has registered a complaint saying that Bennet's statement, intent notwithstanding, is insulting to the shul gabbai. It is demeaning, and was used in the context of saying the gabbai is the symbol of a primitive task, old fashioned, lack of broad perspective...
source: NRG

I know that is not what Bennet meant by his statement, but I did want to say that in my experience the shul gabbai is not that at all. As I said above, the gabbai has a lot of responsibility doing a mostly thankless job. He is usually the first person people complain to about anything in the shul, even if it is irrelevant to his task, and his job is to make sure the shul functions well while keeping the congregants mostly happy and involved.