This is exactly what the Marxists in the past and, today, the post-modernists claimed. They tend to view the world as it is structure based on purely power which is corrupt. It is self-evident that money can give you power and historically power tends to corrupt. Also, it is almost certain that some part of society has its own corruption. However, I believe our society does not work purely to adhere solely to power and money. This is a very dangerous claim and divisive to those who are quite productive and best at what they do.
We have a free market society which are based on competence. Regardless of how much money you have and power, if you produce less to no value than your competitor, it is inevitable that you will lose the game.
You probably under-estimated life if you think you can manipulate the world when you have money and power. History has shown that life is more complex than we thought it is. It maybe a bit hazy now that there are things money can't buy since we put more value now in material things. Nevertheless, the reality is that there are things inconvertible to materialistic value and invaluable.