That's not surprising. Our system, after all, was designed to ensure elite rule. Although the US Constitution doesn't establish political parties, it does clarify, section by section, just how little ordinary people really matter. Two centuries of amendments and Supreme Court rulings have changed many details, but as politicians love to point out every Fouth of July, the Constitution is a resilient document that has preserved our system for more than two hundred years. They typically avoid meaningful discussion of what kind of system we have and whose interests it primarily serves.
Individual elites come and go.
Today's politicians have a new style, talking up democracy instead of emulating the Founding Fathers who ignored the term while ensuring its suppression. More important than style, they have new allegiances, having converted the political system into the agent of globalization. Some Democrats grumble more than Republicans about the victims of corporate power, but leaders of both parties facilitate multinational expansionism. Ralph Nader nips at the corporate beast. Many more say they'd vote for him if he had a chance of winning.