Re: Why does this still happen? Simple. Because British voters are cheap, gullible and stupid.
Maybe the governments should study WTF they do and work out where the real costs are?
If you were to trace the shares/stocks they own in various business... which of their portfolio has how much of a controlling interest in what other businesses, how much of what they control in their turn...
If you were to trace all the connections between their (non-executive) directorships (and those of their golfing buddies)...
I'm pretty sure you'd find that they know exactly what they're doing.
The MPs/Ministers aren't puppets, they're the puppet-masters themselves, pulling their own strings. It just serves their purposes for the rest of us to look away, seeking to learn who their shadowy puppet-masters are; it distracts us from seeing the killing they're making and the fact that there's no-one else but them to blame - ooh, look over there: a squirrel puppet-master!
They're not incompetent; they know what they're doing: lining their own pockets at our expense.