Who would go into politics?

Who would go into politics? The obstacles and disincentives for ordinary people who consider a political career keep increasing:

• you and your immediate family will need enhanced security - even if you are not very high profile; this might apply even after your political career ends; 
• everything you said or put in writing over the past few decades will be trawled and used against you; 
• in most democratic countries, the financial rewards aren't very high.

The results are plain to see: politics has become a game for billionaires and those acting for them. We have a political caste of (mostly) mediocrities who've had little experience in productive enterprises. Some would have embarked on a political career for idealistic reasons, but many of these leave because they can achieve their goals more effectively outside the political circus, or because they aren't sufficiently thick-skinned to take all the abuse their position inevitably attracts. 

One idea might be to adopt the Singapore model: 

Singapore’s remarkable transformation is built on meritocratic governance, where competence, integrity, and performance drive leadership and policy decisions. In political leadership & governance, leaders are selected based on expertise rather than popularity, with rigorous recruitment, performance-based promotions, and corruption-free administration ensuring stability and long-term vision. In public administration & civil service, a highly efficient, professional bureaucracy ensures that civil servants are promoted based on performance, not tenure, with strict anti-corruption measures and ongoing training programs maintaining accountability. Meritocracy in Government Leadership: Example of Singapore, Metamatics and Jakub Zeglitz-Bares, Strategic Intelligence, 20 February 2025

And, crucially (from the same source):

Ministerial salaries in Singapore are pegged to the salaries of top earners in the private sector (such as CEOs and top executives). This ensures that talented individuals do not avoid government service due to financial reasons. 

Singapore's Prime Minister was paid $1.6 million in 2024. There are opportunities for less well-paid politicians to become wealthy from, for example, speeches or writing their memoirs, but they are less certain than official salaries, often less ethical, or the rewards usually have to be deferred until after they have left office. 

An alternative approach could involve issuing Social Policy Bonds: a bond regime would shrink the role of politicians and their ideologies; under a bond regime, political debate would focus on articulating society's goals and raising the revenue required for their achievement. Goals are less divisive than the supposed means of achieving them; and they would be expressed in ways meaningful to everybody, so that there would be greater public participation in the policymaking process, and hence more buy-in. This would be in stark contrast to policymaking today, which is difficult and tedious for people to follow unless they are paid to do so, or are lawyers. Reducing the role of politicians in this way could enlarge the circle of would-be entrants to the profession, such that it might then encompass people from more diverse backgrounds.