[Gormo]

I think the founding fathers presumed that a certain level of corruption and abuse will always exist; their solution was to make it very difficult for any single political institution or office-holder to act autonomously, and deliberately constrained the exercise of power, so as to make effective corruption quite expensive and complicated.

Our modern trend toward increasing political centralization and removal of constraints on power is what's making corruption so lucrative and effective: if you build it, they will come.

Many of those who are most vigorously agitating for campaign finance reform want a strong and centralized federal government that isn't influenced by interests that compete with their own. But you can't have your cake and eat it too: if that's what you order, it's coming with a side of corruption (and a mixed metaphor fresh out of the blender).