The USA has a federal system of government. whereas in Sri Lanka all government power is centralized. In Allegheny County in Pennsylvania where I live, there are 106 completely different police agencies and 43 completely different school districts. The police and schools are administered by township and borough councils, and the City of Pittsburgh, and are funded by local property taxes. Unless local governments are breaking federal or state law, no officials at a higher level can order them to do stuff, and they are essentially independent. All of the police agencies in Sri Lanka report to the Inspector General of Police, and their school system is nationalized too.

Local and state governments are also responsible for the public infrastructure, zoning, health code enforcement, building codes, and environmental enforcement. It makes more sense for the people that actually live somewhere to take care of these things than bureaucrats in a capital far, far away. In Washington DC basically all people do is move money around, a lot of it into their own pockets as is evidenced by the fact that counties surrounding DC are among the richest in the country. But they still don't have as much power or influence over your actual life than the council down at the local municipal building or the knuckleheads at the state capitol, and you can actually go to those places and talk to them personally. It's just easier to yell at Drumph or Brandon on television than to actually participate in the real democracy that is taking place in your community.

The primary qualification for any political office is the willingness to run for it. It takes a certain amount of ego to do that, and also a willingness to spend a lot of time and money on a campaign that will probably have the candidate get beaten badly like most people who run for office.