The causality is the other way around. Because Americans distrust their government it is easily hobbled. It's open to corruption because it's too weak, not to s

The causality is the other way around. Because Americans distrust their government it is easily hobbled. It's open to corruption because it's too weak, not to strong. The US has an usual degree of openness when it comes to the political process. Directly elected representatives, local politics, everything is broadcasted to the public, everything's open to money, and so forth. This kind of openness enables lobbying, it creates the opportunity to influence elected officials, which is considered a feature because it looks superficially 'democratic', but in reality just aids oligarchic interest groups. The way to fix it is literally give more power to the US government, in particular the executive and regulatory bodies and shield them from outside influence, so they can do their job. This debate also has an analog on the other side of the political spectrum, namely policing. The US police is not unusually violent because it's too strong but too weak, because there is too much symmetry between force wielded by citizens and force wielded by authority.