Comment 53 for bug 24280

They sort of did solve this bug. Rather than using gksu and running applications as an administrator, most applications that require "administrator-privileges" use a separate background application. Those applications have a "unlock" button.

Most applications have already been upgraded to this new approach, except for a few, like the update-manager. I think the plan, there, is to integrate it, within the USC.

I'm not an ubuntu-dev, but it seems they were aiming to fix many problems at once, using this new architecture, but it's more work, so it takes a bit longer, but when it's done, not just this bug, but many others can be closed. It's a different trade-off.

On the other hand, the customization, and manual themes in general, is taking a back-seat to other priorities.