of the "politics is disgusting" group. I'm not as experienced and wise as some that have lived through decades of elections, but I think I'm becoming adept at sorting through pandering and political calculation. To my admittedly inexperienced eye, there is one candidate this election cycle that has good ideas and good intentions, which coincidentally is what politics should be about. There are some fringe candidates that I don't know much about certainly, but of the biggest 8-10 names, I've read a good deal about them, and only one looks qualified and is sincere about the right way to govern. Most of the rest are business as usual, and the few that aren't have bad ideas.
The business as usuals share a few traits: their speeches are full of catchy slogans, choreographed applause breaks, photo ops kissing babies on the forehead, etc. Heavy on the theatrics, light on substance. Another trait is not being clear where you stand on something until it's politically expedient to do so. They need to test out their ideas in focus groups and know exactly what kind of reaction to expect before having a public position.
Another obvious thing that comes to mind are the candidates that have clear backing from certain special interests that make conflict of interest very easy to predict. This happens with the vast majority of candidates it seems.
As far as changes, campaign finance reform and term limits are a few things generally talked about, but never done. If you've noticed this cycle, there are three candidates who have refused to take money from super PACS, two being super fringe and the other being Sanders, who talks a lot about how the Citizens United decision has a terrible effect on American politics and would work to overturn it if elected.