While there are things that need to be changed in government the problem is us.
They are for the most part doing what the folks who elected them want them to do.
Good point. I didn't think of that; many of the things we dislike about the government and our legislators here at APS and THR are actually things which many other groups of the voting population want.
The reason they can "get away with it" is because that's what the voters want.
As Walter Williams has said, "If the people would elect a guy like me, they wouldn't need me."