Yes and that doesn't mean that legalizing it carte blanche is a net good either. There are important pieces of legislation missing around controlling how and when politician's can fundraise. Most normal countries legalize lobbying & restrict electioneering to a ~3 month window prior to an election. Additionally, they usually line up election cycles so that you're only having an election every 4 years on all parts of government.

America has no such restrictions. Members of Congress & the President start running & fundraising now ~2 years before an election (& unofficially before that). For the House of Representatives, that means members are in an electioneering & fundraising mode non-stop. The staggered election cycle in the Senate means that a large portion of the Senate is constantly campaigning further making focusing on the act of governing difficult. Fixing these issues doesn't solve all problems obviously but making no reforms isn't going to improve things either.