It's the realisation I came to many years ago reading the UK's satirical politics magazine; Private Eye.

The premise is "the system would work great, if only we could get rid of the corrupt people who occasionally make it inside".

So they dig up scandals on individuals, expose them and they sometimes get replaced. All the while, the machine chugs on.

Satire made things worse because it turns "the system is killing me" to "those darn corrupt politicians ruining everything"