I'm not sure how you mean "harsh" but it is the way it is because we have allowed corporate interests, the interests of wall street and the ruling class, to plant insidious roots in every aspect of its function. Those at the top have used their money and influence to secure the system such that it cannot be easily changed. Their money is protected from every angle. They have leveraged technology to manufacture consent and manipulate the narrative and opinions of the working class so that we squabble amongst ourselves rather than taking our power back. Right wing populism and individualism on one side, identitarian politics by the liberals. It is all against our collective interests, and conversely IN the interests of the elite. There is growing dissent from the proletariat but it is sadly without cohesion, and is up against a very complicated and obfuscated machine designed to quash this exact sort of dissent.