Plato sees the nature of government 2500 years ago.

“[T]he different forms of government make law democratical, aristocratical, tyrannical, with a view to their several interests; and these laws, which are made by them for their own interests, are the justice which they deliver to subjects, and him who transgresses them they punish as a breaker of the law, and unjust. And that is what I mean when I say that in all states there is the same principle of justice, which is the interest of the government; and as the government must be supposed to have power, the only reasonable conclusion as, that everywhere there is one principle of justice, which is the interest of the stronger.”

Thrasymachus (a character in Plato's Republic) saw from ancient times this battle between the liberty of the people against the self-interest of government. The only way to eliminate such a trend is to (1) prohibit any monetary gain whatsoever for the state, (2) term limits for politicians, (3) sub-contract all services to eliminate bureaucracy, (4) eliminate taxation where the cost of government is covered by the creating of money rather than debt eliminating interest, and (4) to restore private disputes to individuals as it was in Athens eliminating where everything is a state offense so they get to impose fines, which was a key reform of Magna Carta – prohibition against fines known then as amercements.