Scandal = illegal or unethical individual behavior, not policies you don't like. This isn't a value judgment. Bad policy is often worse, hurting more people. But defining "scandal" as "thing I think is bad" renders the term meaningless by making it entirely subjective.
I'd say they're still scandals. Some people responsible for scandals don't face consequences, others do. But you raise an interesting point: To qualify as a scandal, do we need to cross some threshold of public anger?