No need to posit secret groups of anonymous people. Democracy gets corrupted and taken over right out in the open. Just look at how rich and powerful executives cycle through government jobs, and how former elected and non-elected officials get sweet gigs at corporations they used to “regulate.” No illuminati, just money.

My rule of thumb is that when 99% of the politicians agree on some specific matters that only have 40-50% approval among the general population. There is a problems.

Modern democracies are more subtle than USSR and such.

You don’t really need to fraud the election because you can just coordinate press campaign for weeks.

You don’t really need to submit politicians, you just need to mostly pick them from the same type of schools, companies or socio economic background.

Independent film-maker Kirby Ferguson has a series called "This is not a Conspiracy Theory" which goes into great detail the human biological need to find patterns and connections where they do not exist. Its a great watch, and I think remastered around the time of the Q movement. An insightful series.