Pass an 'action' variable

It would be helpful if every action would always pass a variable to identify the action in the URL (e.g., a GET variable) to make it easier for modules to intervene for logging and/or security, without having to be particularly familiar with the code architecture.

For example, on export, URL could include ....&action=export

Even better would be to add it to the path, so Drupal path based features (like block visibility, path access control, etc) can be used. e.g., contact/search/export/basic?....