A lot of 'exposed' politicians would be blowing the whistle on it though, once they don't have much to lose, on top of all of the other evidence there might be. Whatever terrible thing these shady string-pullers threaten, they would have to actually act on it now and then, and those people would either blow the lid on the whole operation, or we would see evidence of a lot of shady cover-ups.

For example maybe an exposed pedophile politician threatened to blow the whistle on it and the behind-the-scenes people in response threatened to kidnap or murder them and their families, we would see a lot of politicians and their families getting kidnapped or killed, and we don't. And we don't see a lot of pedophile politicians claiming that there is a ransom ring trying to control other politicians.