It's not widely appreciated that the point of being well-informed is to influence what happens between elections. That's when the politics gets done - the lobbying efforts, candidate selections, control of local political groups, agenda and policy design, and so on.
Elections are just a process to rubber-stamp decisions that have already been made by groups of people who understand this.
^^This point exactly. The entities that want legislation to help them make money do not change. Which is why elections hardly mean much. Trump does a little bit though just because he's lone wolfing it/looking for his own self interests. So it's "different" in a way, but it's still the same game.
Elections are just a process to rubber-stamp decisions that have already been made by groups of people who understand this.