It's becoming a problem in many (most?) of the world's democracies, and it's highlighting a number of fatal flaws in the democratic system.
Corporate, commercial and other vested interests are leading to a "professional" political class who are entrenching power among themselves. These cabals are selecting their own preferred candidates, as RTN says, limiting the choice to the people and using the levers of media, education and culture to influence how voters make their decisions and tell them what are "good" and "bad" opinions to hold, giving them only a limited choice.
To some extent, it is like the Roman Senate - the leaders at the very top are elected, but only by a limited number of votes and voters who have greatest influence, with many more being excluded from influencing the ultimate levels of power. To "compensate" those at the bottom who have no real influence, they are "rewarded" with "bread and circuses" to keep them contented, and there is a tacit agreement that as long as the leaders maintain a degree of order and wellbeing for the people, the people will remain compliant and let them get on with it.
That delicate balance eventually gets overturned though, especially once the masses at the bottom being to feel resentful and that their needs are not being served, and they look up and see their leaders not just enjoying their status, but actually taking advantage very publicly, exploiting their position for all they can get.
I'd say we're seeing that in most modern democracies today - the USA, UK, Europe. We even saw that just recently in South Korea with the discontent over their unpopular president leading to him trying to declare martial law, and now ending up in court.
Part of what is contributing to the chaos is another major flaw in democracy: it only works when there is a clear majority, and a willingness of the people to yield to that majority. As we've seen in so many elections and referendums in the past 10 years or so, if a population is deadlocked more or less 50/50 with strongly entrenched opinions on either side, democracy freezes, and whichever choice is made, as many as half of the population will be discontent, angry and restless. That's a nightmare scenario for any leaders, even if they are trying to be fair to their voters and not just in power to scam their population.