There are actually quite a few CSS frameworks out there, just none which provide the tools the author asks for. As someone mentioned in the comments, YUI Grids provides much of the desired functionality. Another which comes to mind is Blueprint, a typographical layout framework.
I recently converted my personal site to Blueprint, and found it quite nice. I did have to hack it a bit, but at least it's hackable.
Blueprint is best for layouts with columns of fixed width. For a layout with a variable-width content area, you might want to take a look at http://alistapart.com/articles/holygrail.
