Coverage of politics became commodified and sensationalized in the name of ratings and advertising dollars and coupled with intense competition for viewer attention this has led to the news becoming more of a form of entertainment than anything informative.

At the same time, voter apathy drives politicians to search for new ways to create interest, promote themselves, and generate a following.

This promotes more and more sensational behavior, which is further played up by the media, which raises the bar for the kind of things a representative from a flyover red state hardly anyone cares about has to do to maintain a presence on the national stage.

Repeat that cycle a few times and now congress is looking at Hunter Biden's nudes.

I would suggest 'Amusing Ourselves to Death' by Neil Postman for further reading.