Welcome to the Org Kelfy!

A lot of the difficulty of diplomacy has to do with your Campaign Difficulty level. If you're playing on easy (which it sounds like you are), then relations with other factions are very easy to maintain, and there aren't the same penalties for such things as going a few turns without contacting a faction, etc.

Most players who are playing on Hard or Very Hard campaign difficulty find the diplomacy quite challenging.

Best of luck to you!