I fear KK may be right. Our elected representatives are bought and paid for by corporations, unions, special interest groups and any other group that can scrape together enough money to turn their heads. Add to that the recent Supreme Court decision that seems to open the buy-a-politician floodgates even wider, including foreign interests, and I believe we are doomed to mediocrity at best and complete collapse at worst.
Add to the above the fact that most politicians seem far more interested in their survival and party domination than they are in making America better. And then consider ethics committees that are worse than useless. We are indeed in a major mess, and I don't see an easy way out.