The problem of course is that every faction in American politics has lots of guns. Unless you want to be ruled by whomever can prevail thunderdome style in an all out war we need to keep solving things with voting and debate.
If I had to guess it's a name given to the phenomena by which what a freshly elected legislator ends up doing once they get to Washington D.C. tends to differ from what they actually get to do based on having to grapple with the political realities at the National level. This would include exposure to well funded lobbyists as well.
But that's just a guess...