More Words, Deeper Hole

The powers-that-be in this setting are very much Chalker stock characters, in that they are evil rulers who do evil, for the evulz, the only difference between presidents and mob bosses being that one title comes with a colorful flag. Nobody in these universes seems to have hit upon the idea of using political power to make an entire polity more powerful rather than acquire more money and sex toys.

A brief examination of history shows that people who organize strong functional groups and work together tend to out-compete unscrupulous gangs that are constantly backstabbing each other (as does the American news), but disfunctional government generates more stories.