As reported at pnhp.org, "Multivariate analysis indicates that economic elites and organized groups representing business interests have substantial independent impacts on U.S. government policy, while average citizens and mass-based interest groups have little or no independent influence." This should rightly be seen as fundamentally upsetting and unsettling to all those that believe that this is a country of the people, by the people, and for the people. Rather, it clearly seems to be a country that favors those that are the economically privileged as well as the business interests that make sure that the legislation so passed favors their interests, all to the exclusion of the general public, in whole.
Of course, nothing of this should be much of a surprise, because the majority of the very people that populate our legislatures, the executive office, and the interpreters of the law, are often those that are privileged, themselves; as well as those that have deliberately left private industry for governmental "service", often for the expressed purpose to game the system so as to favor the very industry that they so left. Still, just because that is the way that things currently are, does not mean that it is right, and further does not mean that it should stay the same as it currently is, but rather should be properly seen as an outrage upon the people, for this government is supposed to not only faithfully serve the people, in whole; but, in order for that government to be of a legitimate service to the people, it must be just, and a government that favors the few and connected at the expense of the public, is certainly not just.
Unfortunately, it would seem that having the right connections with important governmental officials, as well as having the monetary means to influence such, appears to be the playbook that works, time and time, again. That is why, it is so important that governmental business should be as transparent and as public as possible, for those that sway public policy prefer to take care of that sort of business, outside the public purview, for they know that the more that they are exposed for who and what they really are, the more difficult and expensive it becomes to achieve their biased goals and agendas.
So too, a free and independent press is absolutely essential to keeping any democracy, fairly informed and engaged. However, when that mainstream press is in cahoots with those economic elites and business interests, then they are promoters of the very agenda that favors those forces, against the people. Regrettably, to a very large extent, the mainstream press is fundamentally controlled by specific business interests that put on the façade that they so disseminate all the news that is germane to the public, in a fair and unbiased manner, but in actuality, they don't.
Further to the point, the general public has to work for a living, and therefore typically are lacking in the time, money, as well as the resources to effectively monitor their governmental representatives; so that, they often take things on faith, as opposed to carrying out a proper due diligence. That is why, it is so distressing that those that ostensibly are democratically elected so as to responsibly represent the people, are so often, nothing of the sort, but rather are in it for themselves, and further are often compromised, by those elites and business interests.