The path of the US Government

It's unfortunate that entertainment and perception rule our society. Politicians stand up and smile and wave and everyone thinks it's all great. I was disturbed that we traded 5 high ranking Al Qaeda generals for Bergdahl when he got captured because he deserted his post. The White House announced that we had little chance to convict those generals so they were going to be released anyways. Fact is that the Taliban will now be working a lot harder to capture Americans in order to force trades. The position of the US for hundreds of years has been that we do not negotiate with terrorists. What changed? Now who knows if Bergdahl was actually a deserter because both the military and the government have grown fond of lying. But this situation in Iraq is building quick and we're once again at the mercy of what our government tells us and allows the media to broadcast. I do know that the second largest city in Iraq is once again under the control of Al Qaeda insurgents and we'll once again get involved because of natural resources but the message will be that it was because we care and we're humanitarians. If that's true why did we not help the Ukraine when Russia invaded? The system is corrupt. There is little doubt that The basis of what the United States of America is built is the most modern and successful of any in recent history. Unfortunately, in several hundreds of years the lawyers and policy makers have found a way to bypass all of it's laws in order to benefit. In the original Constitution Congress was paid only for time they were in session. When they returned to their home they would fill out a expense report and submit it to be reimbursed. This was because they were originally civil servants. This changed in I believe the Taft administration where he decided to make them all full time employees of the government. They were then enabled to vote on their own raises. Now, they not only receive their pay of almost 200k a year but they also receive about another half a million a year to pay for staff, travel, and misc expenses. They're basically living the good life while telling the rest of us that we need to pay for their lifestyle. When did this change and how to we change it back and hold these people accountable?