"Democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others."
As to your other points, the common tropes along the lines of 'both sides are the same' 'all politicians are crooks', etc. are usually those regurgitated by disengaged low information voters (I am not saying that is you). The conservatives have been preying upon these sort of voters via their misinformation apparatus. So, I think it is very harmful to spread the idea that voters shouldn't educate themselves because both sides are the same.
That being said, yes our political system is ****ed and has been well and truly ****ed by
Citizens United which is an utter disaster for our democracy. However, saying 'both sides are the same' fixes nothing. The 'People vs. the Elites' effect you describe is only going to get worse as the Dems have to kowtow more and more to corporate money in order to compete.
There are now multiple movements, given your posts here I believe you would support, to amend the constitution to say that Corporations are not people with all of the rights given to natural persons, and that money is not speech.
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/...itizens-united
https://freespeechforpeople.org/mcgovern/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Move_t...s%20United%20v.
Predictably, it is the red state Senators with their dark money who are strongly opposing the movement. A bit more topically, adding two more states would help a great deal in pushing much needed constitutional amendments such as this forward.
So maybe you should pick a side.