If you were talking about the average canadian/québécois MP, I'd say you give them too much credit. Don't really know much about the american elected, though, but I tend to believe that they aren't all scheming geniuses as you seem to suggest they are.
I also doubt that fear for the "greater good" is that much of a cause, else I'd expect a lot of ex-officials to testify to such a thing fairly regularly. Just looks like partisanry to me, though this doesn't mean that the people doing it are stupid. After all, a lot of money is involved here...