Politicians are often not great especially Teddy Roosevelt - a war-mongering, braggard focused on making a name for the himself and furthering the ‘forward race’.

Change if it comes at all will come by... 1. a populist demagogue with unchecked power

2. Or when the market wills it more than likely via technological disruption of some kind

Things must get worse before they get better as with all major advancements in human history.

These are not the only ways society changes for the better. Every once in a while you get someone like Tommy Douglas:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tommy_Douglas

So what you’re saying is that we need more Baptist preachers in politics? ;)

wow, great guy. For those not clicking: responsible for single-payer health care in Saskatchewan (60s); voted greatest Canadian 20 years after his death. And Kiefer Sutherland is his grandson, yeah ;)

Looks like you're saying that they won't be good (a moral quality), not that they won't be great (a performance measurement); Alexander was Great, as well as the Great Khan Genghis, shaping the world as we know it, yet neither were good.

Change comes from a great many people acting for it.