Darn right it goes on way too long. Furthermore, the primary battle is a very bad idea, because it causes the people in each party to damage their own people very badly before the main event even begins. That is very foolish and counterproductive.

And it is not the way it's done in most parliamentary systems at all. Most of them establish the party leaders at times quite separate from the national election process...not as the first act in a 2-part melodrama based on character assassination, rumor, and innuendo.