Lifting the lid on a toilet cistern

Doesn't do what it says on the tin

Erm I may be completely missing the point but have you tried unscrewing the buttons. On mine I have to flush the toilet, this means both buttons can be depressed and fingers inserted into the button containing cylinder allowing it to be unscrewed from the inside of the cylinder the whole buttons/cylinder assembly can then be lifted out, no tubes or cables or anything like that.

In my experience they normally retain the buttons on the lid and the shafts push into the bottom end of the buttons. The plastic buttons nearly always crack here, and the metal ones seize due to splashing and limescale. The designers seem impervious to these shortcomings. Brian

The ones that let you put the button anywhere often do (although some are sleeved cable designs). Many that have the button in the centre of the top of the cistern cover, are direct connections of one kind or another. The most common simply being a couple of "fingers" that poke down from the buttons to push a pair of buttons on the top of the flush valve.