I have to ask: Do you seriously think you are making a rational argument at this point? (Or have you, e.g., decided I'm an idiot not worth engaging with in actual rational discussion? Because if so, you could just say so.)

It makes no sense to answer my question "How do you know?" with "Same way you do" because I am not claiming to know anything about politicians' motivations here, and you are.

When you imagine your Machiavellian politician, does your imagination provide you with something that plays the role of X for mine? Or does your imagined politician simply want more regulation as a terminal value, regulation purely for the sake of regulation? If the latter, what reason is there to think that the number of such politicians is not tiny?