Markup change suggestion

I am finding that I cannot target apparently empty elements using the :empty selector because they contain white space - which give the element a child text node. Here is an example of such an element.

<div class="content-wrapper">

</div>

The spaces in the middle line and before the </div> seem to be for indentation.

Is it possible to write empty divs all in one line with no spaces at all?

(p.s. I don't know what part of the design is creating the empty element or I would delete it, as it occurs on all my pages. Perhaps related to a page banner that the template doesn't use? I can see an inaccessible element in the new page editing process.)
thank you,

Anita