There are lots of countries where you need to bribe government officials in order to achieve the simple things. The US is fortunately still far from that level.

It’s astonishing the US is still so high in that ranking, like Transparency International’s being paid off to keep the US from dropping much further.

it's not that they're paid off, it's that they're run by people who are ideologically aligned with the american oligarchy.

you don't have to pay off people who are already zealots; you just make sure that those zealots are selected/appointed/voted to run things.