I added this to my reading list, looks interesting, thanks.

Though I'm very opposed in general to the idea that causation is one sided here.

I can easily see it as a cycle. Popular candidates get more money, can buy more attention which makes them more popular, get more money, buy even more attention, and so on.

There's also the gnarly topic of money and the big media which is involved at every step here as well.

It's an extremely complicated topic with many moving parts interacting in all sorts of interesting ways.