Basically it always boils down to education. Enough people have to understand enough of the reality of how the world really works, and be motivated (or at least intolerant) enough to stand up to ridiculousness. When they do, things change.
What this means to say is, there need to be enough people who don’t believe the government should have that much power in the first place. If the power the government wields is much less, there is less and less incentive for political entrepreneurs to lobby for goodies. The cost of doing so becomes too great (because of course, the only reason such unproductive behavior as lawyering and lobbying yields profit is because of the government booty that usually gets awarded because of it.) The less there is to “auction off” so-to-speak, the less profitable it is to spend time schmoozing politicians.
A few references on your topic:
Do Government Regulations Actually Help Big Business? - Tim Carney
