Speaking as a US citizen with 12 years of voting experience, I can tell you that strategy doesn't work in practice :(

There are no non-dumb politicians; dumbness is a feature of this occupation much more than of particular people involved.

Only a power hungry moron would actively seek the responsibility they hold.

I fight off being a manager, I can't imagine being in any kind of leadership position over an entire county/state or country.

It's not leadership and responsibilities per se that are the problem, it's the structure that grew around it. People who get to the top are not random, they're preselected to be malleable, to be puppets of various established interests. You don't get anywhere near real power if your peers think you can't be controlled by them.

Politicians in a representative democracy are supposed primarily to be servants of their electoral region aren't they ...

Just like a proper manager of people isn't over those people. A manager should - IMO - be just another part of a team, a person/people who coordinates and facilitates the work of others.