I actually do believe in the existence of the deep state, which may explain some politicians'reluctance to reining in the intelligence community. (However, it's also absurd that corrupt-assed people have latched on to that idea to defend their blatant corruption.)
And I did mention 2012's NDAA as a big part of the problem, that was all President Obama. He said he needed the power but swore to not use it. To which the logical response was, "Yeah, great, but then why fight for the dystopian clause in the first place and also, what if the person after you is a complete nutter?" Then we got Trump.
Both sides have also engaged in illegal warfare that as you put it, we have all been complicit with. The movement towards a surveillance state seems like an act of war against our own citizens. So no argument here, whether it is the system or the politicians who are corrupted, something is definitely amiss.
It is a very real dichotomy: if you want things to change, then you need to vote for the largest group which is vaguely aligned towards your interests, and then wait for them to split into two new, largest groups.
First past the post is a terrible system, and spoiler candidates are very real in it. If you want this to be a false dichotomy, get rid of FTTP and implement preferential voting (and mandatory voting, which is how you get it to work).