The issue is that we educated, rational types left the management of Islam to literal criminals.
Part of the problem is that we, on one hand, don't expect a correct Islamic tarbiyah (based on seerah and evidences) of ourselves and our leaders.
Look at how we speak about Nawaz Sharif, Zardari, Bilawal, etc. It's always about their corruption or their stupidity (or both). However, if you have no firm reference point for your morals (like Islam), then what does it matter if you're corrupt or stupid? You see, Nawaz et. al lack such a level of shame, that they don't care if you call them stupid, corrupt, or whatever.
At the end of the day, because we have no "red line", they'll keep coming back to power.
OTOH, if we thought about it in terms of, "is this okay in Islam?" Then, simply put, none of our political or religious leaders would meet the criteria. They would all fail and, in turn, it'd be very easy for us and our society to marginalize them.
However, for that to happen, we -- i.e. normies -- have to retake ownership of Islam from others. Most of the prophets weren't born priests, but they were mostly men of normal backgrounds. Rasul'Allah (SAW) was of merchants. Musa (AS) was of labourers. Dawud (AS) was of soldiers. And so on. Some were born among priests, such as Ibrahim (AS), Yusuf (AS) and Isa (AS), but didn't we notice how they were all spurned by the priestly establishment?