No, I'm Not Going to Bother Posting Another Revolving Door Pic

Both Boingboing and Vox put up very nice images of revolving doors to go with the story of how the Cartel has captured the Obama administration's trade agenda. Back in the dark ages (like, starting shortly after Obama came into office) I noted that the RIAA was taking over the DoJ. Sure enough the result was that federal agencies got turned into copyright cops and we got copyright maximalism.

It's really unsurprising, then, that other bits of the Cartel (the MPAA and its affiliates in this case) have also gotten in on the act. The recently resigned US Trade Rep goes to work for the Cartel, joining at least a dozen of his colleagues. Meanwhile, Obama nominates Robert Holleyman, fresh out of the pro-SOPA BSA, to be the new trade rep.

The phrase you are looking for here is "regulatory capture" and as Wikipedia so baldly states, it's corrupt, and a form of government failure. Yes, it didn't start with Obama nor will it end with his departure. But it has gotten particularly brazen under a man who promised to keep his administration at arm's length from lobbyists.