Government’s power to solve problems comes from its ability to reassign resources, whether by taxing, spending, regulation or simply passing laws. But that very ability energizes countless investors and entrepreneurs and ordinary Americans to go digging for gold by lobbying government. In time, a whole industry – large, sophisticated, professionalized, and to a considerable extent self serving – emerges and then assumes a life of its own. This industry is a drain on the productive economy, and there appears to be no natural limit to its growth. As it grows, the steady accumulation of subsidies and benefits, each defended in perpetuiry by a professional interest group, calcifies government. Jonathan Rauch
Demosclerosis: The Silent Killer of American Government