[acdha]

As a fellow American, that sounds like you need to reconsider your news sources. Brexit was driven by propaganda, not some principled opposition to intractable problems. The “EUrocrats gone wild” stories are popular in certain circles but there’s an entire cottage industry debunking them:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euromyth

[dennisgorelik]

Both "stay" and "exit" sides were covered pretty well.

But if Brussel's bureaucracy behaved more reasonably, UK would not run away from European Union.

[acdha]

Again, that's taking a talking point as a given. Some people cited that or hypothetical cost savings as a justification but the claims tended to be based on urban legends or outright wishful thinking rather than actual analysis.