During the Gilded Age how were the people denied democratic self government?

I would argue that it is a bit overstated to say that
people were denied democratic self-government during this time, but it is safe to say
that they had less of it than we modern people would think they should have had.  This
was largely because of the corruption that pervaded this
era.

During this time, the "robber barons" were making
their money and were using part of that money to buy off people in government.  It was
during this time that the Senate (which was not popularly elected in those days) was
seen as a group of men who had been "bought" by the big business interests.  You can see
many political cartoons from those days which show this image of the Senate.  At the
same time, there were all sorts of corruption scandals in the government.  A major
example of this was the Grant Administration, which was rocked by many scandals such as
the Credit Mobilier scandal.

Because there was so much
corruption, you might argue that people did not have as much control over the government
as they ought to have had.  In that way, you can say they were denied democratic
self-government.