The only way I know of to do this is to create a smart playlist for the artist/album, then shuffle that playlist. Not difficult or time-consuming at all -- probably take all of 5 seconds, but I agree that adding this feature so it's a feature instead of a workaround would be beneficial.
There is an option in the iTunes prefrences to keep album tracks together when suffling... I do not have access to my Mac for a while so I can't tell you exactly where or exactly how it is phrased, but it is in there.
AHHH I found it, I am blind, i looked right past it earlier. If you go into Preferences, then the advanced tab there is 2 radio buttons, it says shuffle by: Song or Album