This is a well-understood and popular problem.
I've tried the five-whys on this, and always end up at unnecessary escalation and righteous idealism (not by any particular party or person, just kind of by everyone). But the book Righteous Mind does a better job on this issue than I ever will.
Among other reasons, we got here because the government only seems to respond to big business and the oligarch class, but not the rest of us.