Mr. Reich saw the early results of this influence as a staff member at the Federal Trade Commission during the Carter administration. When his agency proposed rules to curb food companies’ ability to market sugary products to children, the industry pushed back forcefully. The proposal was ultimately dropped.

As another example, Mr. Reich points to legislation like the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003, which was ostensibly devised to help seniors pay for health care, but in actuality barred the government from using its clout to negotiate lower drug prices from pharmaceutical companies.

For Mr. Reich, these episodes and countless others he can cite are proof that lawmakers are more often than not looking out for the interests of corporations, not voters. “With great wealth has also come great political power,” he said. “Wealth buys everything from tax breaks, to bailouts, to subsidies, to laws that on their face look to be neutral, but actually help particular companies or industries or wealthy people.”

This is a sorry state of affairs, he suggests, and one that wasn’t inevitable. Democratic presidents could have embraced labor law reform and made it easier to form unions, he said. Politicians, workers and investors could have pushed back against the corporate raiders in the 1980s, who glorified short-term profits and made enormous personal fortunes. And the government could have resisted the push to deregulate Wall Street.

Putting the genie back in the bottle won’t be easy, though. As convincing as he is in making his case against the flaws in our current version of capitalism, Mr. Reich is less so when it comes to prescribing a remedy. He comes prepared with a laundry list of progressive pipe dreams. Get big money out of elections. Stop the revolving door between government and industry groups. End gerrymandering of voting districts. Raise the minimum wage.

Yet for any of these to happen, Democrats would have to start winning more elections. And at the end of the Netflix film, he implores viewers to organize and vote. He knows it won’t be easy, but he says the alternative is bleak. “If we’re not vigilant, we will lose our democracy,” he said. “The public is waking up to that fact.”

If it all sounds familiar, it is because Barack Obama, Bernie Sanders and even Donald J. Trump have appealed to disaffected workers in recent presidential campaigns.