"Catering to lobbyists and big money is the only way to get anything done." as you mentioned, is more of a guarantee that you will get rich while you are in office, which is getting something done, just not for the people that elected them to do something for the people.
They are surely playing a game up there in Washington, and we only get to finance the game and watch, which is our own fault. We have the power to vote but a very low percentage of us even bother to vote , and even those that do vote seldom actually study or research who they are voting for and just vote along party lines.