It is a fundamental belief that this country was created by the people, and for the benefit of those people, which is why we have elected representatives that are voted in by the people, in all our various forms of government, with the sole exception of some judicial appointments, that are made by elected officials. In consideration, then, that those that are elected have been democratically selected by the people, one would have a tendency to believe that it so follows that the policies and laws so passed throughout governmental activities, would be a fair reflection of what the majority of the people desire, and certainly in conformance to our Constitution, with its specific delegation of powers.
In point of fact, everything about America, indicates that what the people want seems to be pretty much irrelevant, and instead, quite often the policies that are put into place, reflect not the desires of those people, but rather clearly are in close harmony with those lobbyists, corporations, and trade organizations, that have specific agendas that they desire to see passed, in which by a combination of money and their influence upon the values of representatives of all types, are able to see that again and again, the legislation that these parties desire to see passed or modified, are done in a manner that favors those elites as well as corporate interests, at the expressed expense of the people.
While, no doubt, part of the blame should be placed upon the people, themselves, in the sense that a significant portion of those people, either don't vote, or are not engaged in educating themselves in the policies of the day; the vast majority of the problem really comes down to money, and the salient fact that those with money, in conjunction with those that are masterfully gifted with the ways to use money to influence media of all types and to therefore influence people in their voting selections, carries a lot more of the blame.
Additionally, there is the motivation factor when it comes to policies of all sorts, of which the vast majority of people that actually do the voting, have other interests that engage them on a given day, so that the amount of time that they can devote to any one issue, or have a concern about with a particular issue is relatively limited, and hence these voters while having preferences on issues, aren't available to devote anything close to an unlimited amount of time or resources upon it. On the other hand, organizations and lobbyists are specifically created to address issues that they most definitely care about, of which they address such activities in a very serious and businesslike manner, that they well-nigh do anything to see that their particular agenda is passed, because in their mindset, those issues mean everything to them and the only acceptable outcome is their winning.
Quite frankly, it isn't a fair fight between individual voters and special interests, in which the average citizen, might not even be aware of what is really happening, whereas the other side most definitely is quite aware of everything that is happening, and treats what they are trying to accomplish, as the be all and end all of their existence; so it thereby should come as no surprise, that the voters are outgunned, outmaneuvered, and marginalized, so that the end result is that this is not a government, of, for, and by the people but is instead the domain of those that have the money, position, and power, and this is the most significant reason why the rich keep getting richer and ever richer.