The rise of television has made American political life highly attractive - even addictive - to narcissistic sociopaths, and made it equally abhorrent and repellent to normal Americans. I'm not sure what the fix is, short of candidate debates with everyone wearing a bag over their heads.
On second thought, maybe that should be a requirement to hold office - kind of a reverse "Man in the Iron Mask" thing. You don't get to know what the office-holder looks or sounds like, or what racial or socio-economic sub-group he is pandering to - and can thus only judge the individual by his actions. :)
” . . . narcissistic sociopaths . . .”
If I had to use two words to describe the last two Democrat occupants of the Oval Office, I could not have done better.