All politicians are assholes. Nothing new there.
The only time they put aside their personal agendas and pretend to be working for the public good (which is their actual job) is when there is a crisis of some kind.
Everybody wanted to do the right thing after 9/11, everybody wanted to help after Katrina, all sorts of efforts were going to be made to help out in Haiti.
But when things go back to normal, the pretense of doing the right thing goes out the window to be replaced with doing what benefits them.
The answer seems pretty obvious. In order to get politicians to do their job, we must live in a state of crisis all the time.
We need hurricanes, and suicide bombers and plagues and economic turmoil and earthquakes. All The Time.
Of course the other simpler answer, and one that would raise everybody’s quality of life rather than lower it, would be to simply get rid of the politicians.
Maybe we could outlaw it like witchcraft.