> Ideally there would be some sort of accountability for elected officials, where they would have to answer to their electorate, and where conflicts of interest would be against the law (and prosecuted), but who am I kidding?

Right, exactly. It's like the claim that Communism would work great once automation eliminates the need for all human labor. It's a nice theory, might even be true, but until we can satisfy the precondition what practical relevance does it have? Go work on the precondition and come back after you accomplish that. In the meantime we need something else.