What we did wrong was letting unlimited money into the political arena, as an example the campaign for the open senate seat in Michigan Slotkin(D) v. Rogers(R), according to Open Secrets
Slotkin raised $45,202,000 and there was $78,467,000 in outside spending
Rogers raised $10,484,000 and there was $62,381,000 in outside spending
We have let big donors control elections and how campaigns are run; over $100 million spent to elect someone to a position that pays $174,000 (so about 1/1,000 or what is spent for the election).
I am not smart enough to figure out how to put that genie back in the bottle; but if you think these people are not agents for (pick your flavor) pharma, tech, finance, military, medicine, etc. then I have some ocean front property near Tulsa that I would like to sell you. PAC's, SuperPAC's, dark money, corporate money, etc they could care less about anything but their own balance sheet, income statement and cash flow.