[CWuestefeld]

it might be time for a plan B, like systemic changes to reduce the effects of corruption ... That's essentially the campaign-finance-reform argument

No, your response doesn't address your goal at all. CFR doesn't do a darned thing to "reduce the effects of corruption". It seeks to decrease the possible vectors of corruption (both in quantity and magnitude), but it does absolutely nothing to address the effects of corruption.

What yummyfajitas and others have been arguing is precisely for a solution to the problem you cite, the effects of corruption. That is to make it so that it matters much less how a bureaucrat gets corrupted, by stripping him of power to the greatest extent possible, so that the potential for damage he can cause is minimized.

[anigbrowl]

That so-called solution also ties the hands of honest reformers. Obstruction of regulatory function is just as subject to corruption as an excess thereof. The notion that the payor is morally pure is absurd; public choice theory shows that large entities like corporations and unions have every incentive to rig the process by exploiting the rational ignorance of the median voter.