I know this is basically a rant but, there seems to be a fundamental disconnect between people’s understanding of economics and reality.
Just to be absolutely clear, undue political influence by corporations is directly related to the power, breadth, and size of the government they work to influence. This means that, by its very nature, the enlargement (and especially centralization) of government works as an agent for the expansion of corporate influence and NOT, as many progressives hope, a counterbalance to it.
Corporatism is a symptom of the problem, not the cause. Any regulatory attempt to alleviate the pain caused by that symptom only acts, ultimately, to aggravate the problem. While attention and public outcry may temporarily hide the influence of business; capital never looses attention and will quickly take over when politics has moved on.
Before some conservatives start yelling hallelujah from the roof-tops, understand the implications of this. The opposite of supporting government is NOT support business because being pro business is effectually the same as being pro government. Ultimately business will work to extend its competitive advantage at the cost of consumer independence and there is no better way to extend a business advantage than to legislate one. Remember, every monopoly throughout history was created by an act of government legislated preference.
The only solution to corporatism and socialism is capitalism, a real free market. The free market is not just the only way to limit government influence, but it is the only way to limit corporate influence as well.