Spelling bees, basketball, congress.
All three of these games started out as honest competitions open to anyone with a few basic qualifications. All three have become strange dishonest charades, maintaining a pretense of rules and competition for the sake of public spectacle, while reaching fully predetermined results.

Spelling bees used to be open to any kid within a certain age range, and used to be fast-moving procedures with no dawdling. Either you knew the word or you didn't. Now they are effectively limited to autistic home-schooled Hindoos, and every word is accompanied by an endless series of helps and clues. The procedure is designed to make the helps and clues appear optional, and the MC must act surprised each time a kid asks for one of the endless series of helps and clues, even though every single kid always asks for every single one of the endless series of helps and clues.

Basketball used to be a game open to any strong and fast athlete, and the purpose (as far as I can tell) was to throw the ball through a basket which was well above everyone's heads. Now it's played by carefully cultivated freakish black giants, and the purpose (as far as I can tell) is to violently smash the ball down into the basket, which is now at waist level for these freaks. The charade of rules is maintained, but the result is preset by each team's preselected and genetically determined average height.

Congress used to be open to any citizen above a certain age, and its purpose was to create, delete and revise laws. Now it's open to any Mafia-connected rich asshole above a certain net worth, and the purpose is to rubber-stamp each new step in our pre-determined national suicide. These steps are created by enemy agents wearing black robes and by enemy agents in the bureaucracy. Congress continues the visible charade of having rules and "debates", but the only thing they ever "debate" and "pass" in public is a resolution to honor a basketball team or a spelling-bee winner.
  ¶ 4:10 AM