If you're looking to cast blame on bad policies, then blame those ultimately responsible: the politicians and the voters who put them there.
Ideally, the United States would have a mechanism that would allow voters to choose politicians with the best policies. What we have instead is a system where voters have to chose between the least worst of two possible options. Both parties are beholden to the top 1%, but the are not equally so.
What I find amazing is the lengths people will go to to blame government bureaucrats while reelecting the people who appointed them in the first place.