Democracy: an empty word

Once I learned at school (great times, when they still used to teach and children used to learn) that the State is at the service of the citizen that the State IS the citizen, and the government represents the citizens.
The State should protect citizens with laws, with controls, but it can no longer do that. Its voters are not citizens, but economic groups that influence their opinions through the media.
Their representatives in Parliament don’t have “social equity” as their priority but blind and absolute obedience to the parties that appointed them.
The controlling Authorities are bodies directed by failed politicians on a short leash.
It’s a State that has made public affairs into a market place.
That makes concessions to friends, often even to the government without suffering an identity crisis.
The government doesn't represent the citizens, it "rules" and looks every day a little bit more like the old Monarchies and a little bit less like what we would like it to be.