....”How DO these people who are supposed to be our leaders get where they are, if they are NOT aware of fundamental, long-standing rules and laws that the REST of us LIVE BY?”....
They’re aware...they simply don’t care about such thing and neither does the public voting for them...it’s called a ‘lawless society’.
Even IF that story is satire, it says a lot that it is indistinguishable from the daily and hourly disclosure of crimes and other misdeeds of people who are supposed to know better and DO NOT!