stupid government is the root cause - and government is chosen by voters and does what voters want it to do. China is monarchy and monarchs listen to no one.
Voters and lobbyists are the same thing. Regularly telling your elected hire what to do is the onus on all participants in a representative system. The employee you hired isn't a mind reader.
The only reason we imagine that there is a distinction is because most voters are too lazy to talk to the person they hired, so those who do stand out.
You may be thinking of a specific lobbyist, but that specificity is now only being introduced in your comment. It does not apply to comments that came earlier.
It remains that the system of government in the US expects regular lobbying from all voters. Without other qualifiers, lobbyists and voters are the same thing.
However I agree that democracies around the globe mostly work, in the sense that voters get what they are voting for.