A lot of that comes from the development of corporate lobbyists and special interest groups in the 1970s. Even then they were highly regulated, and oversized campaign contributions still counted as bribes. That all changed after Reagan got into office, and Gucci Gulch got unfettered access to elected officials. After that, a lot of politicians were too tempted by the prospect of getting fantastically wealthy and forgot about the dream of changing the world for the better.

A lot of this isn't really new. To quote Rutherford B. Hayes, The real difficulty is with the vast wealth and power in the hands of the few and the unscrupulous who represent or control capital. Hundreds of laws of Congress and the state legislatures are in the interest of these men and against the interests of workingmen. These need to be exposed and repealed. All laws on corporations, on taxation, on trusts, wills, descent, and the like, need examination and extensive change. This is a government of the people, by the people, and for the people no longer. It is a government of corporations, by corporations, and for corporations.

So the influence of wealth and corporate interest on political power is, in fact, an old problem. What frustrates me is how reforms could have been made during their rare collective moments of conscience, and they didn't. To be fair, civil liberties of non-whites and women were a higher priority.