Two other features support this reading of power as an end in itself - incompetence & corruption.
I don't really know what the Trump & Johnson administrations *stand for*. Nor, I think, do they.
Neither are serious governments, but that places their citizens in serious jeopardy. https://twitter.com/MikeH_PR/status/1264140340619067394

I don't even see them (or their supporters) as particularly 'evil'. I imagine they spend no time contemplating public 'goods' or otherwise.

They just hold power because they can. They found the master key to it.

I think @jennirsl nailed the symptoms & what flows from them here https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/04/opinion/boris-johnson-coronavirus-uk.html

Been reflecting a lot on this 'Tories are evil' mantra, so popular on Twitter. Was wondering why I'm always so irritated by it. It's possibly because ascribing any moral valence to them seems to miss this point. It dignifies an empty vessel.

I mean, look at the characters. Truss, Patel, Grayling, Hancock, Raab, Johnson himself. These are not serious people. Apart from Gove, I can't think of a serious senior figure in this iteration of the Conservative Party (though I thought Julian Smith was ok)