> something is seriously wrong
Not at all, this is just the way things are, and if you studied history correctly you'd realize this and be educated enough to rationally think about these things instead of repeating a common indoctrinated response. Unfortunately most people who have attended compulsory k-12 education are fighting against some level of indoctrination whether they know it or not. There are numerous factors designed to rob people of their reason and its a rare individual who overcomes this.
Systems work either because of the distribution of labor, or corruption, that enables them to overcome friction and enact change in a productive direction.
In centralized systems, the distribution of labor is not effective because you are not free to build those systems from the ground up (decentralized). Its top-down and concentrated. The people in these systems do not do this for free, they seek benefits as does anyone in a distribution of labor, and this is oft referred to as corruption since it is working outside the defined top-down system's provided benefits.
People over time are almost always incapable of limiting themselves when they are raised above others, there's a biological component which affects dopamine related to heirarchy. Its the same in lobsters, which is why some anti-depressants actually work on lobsters.
Power increases heirarchy, affecting dopamine levels, you run into the same issues of those at the top always striving for more; and it never being enough. In this particular context seeking more power than has been granted is a problem.
Over sufficient lengths of time, governments become corrupt. They start passing laws with no legal basis, and use their power to compulse, coerce, and increase their power and control through enforcing these laws which they had no authority to pass in the first place.
There are many written accounts of this, some of the most famous being Thomas Paine who described the destruction of the Bastille and the French Revolution.
This is the natural lifecycle of government. When governments are unable to correct issues internally, they devolve into fascism. When facing fascists, they will take whatever they can; as determined by the people with pull until people stop them; the cycle starts over, generations forget, hubris sets in; and it repeats.
The only thing stopping them is your ability to defend yourself and your property making the cost more than the benefit. Its why this was written into the constitution. Its happened many times in recorded history.
It almost always starts with corruption by dependency. Making the majority of people or a population completely dependent upon the system for survival. It often creates a problem and then utilizes tactics that the only reason something couldn't be fixed is because their power isn't enough which is plausible; but its never enough and neglects the origin of the problem. History is full of examples where people have lied to gain more power.
Slow small corruptions over time that build into larger and larger corruptions, finally to laws without a legal basis of authority that can be applied arbitrarily to anyone the leaders or their delegates choose.
People living through these times normalize this behavior because they have no choice. Its a psychological coping mechanism. Eventually a destabilization event occurs breaking any dependencies for authority and you have fascism/authoritarianism, such as what happened in Germany starting with the Reichstag Fire (1933) that ultimately paved the way for WW2.
Timothy Snyder did a series of videos on Tyranny. You may find these interesting as a starting point for further self-directed education as he is a credible source, being a Yale Historian with background in the Holocaust and more recent history.
Most of what we are taught in school is incomplete in an intentional way, and misleads towards wrong viewpoints because we weren't provided all the appropriate information, nor were we biologically developed enough or trained to think critically and rationally.
Much is taught by rote prior to the age of reason and students conditioned for boredom as was done in the original compulsory education our education system was based off which originally came from Prussia to train obedient patriotic unthinking soldiers.
Our system is designed to train obedient workers. Critical thought is not what its designed to teach, they only teach what promotes an obedient worker which is why they don't teach you about money or other things that would help you be successful, success outcomes are only a secondary objective and that is a structured design.