Is politics essentially bad

It depends on one's viewpoint.

If one views government as existing solely to prevent man's baser instincts from allowing us to slaughter eachother, one could say that the tyranny of government is a necessary evil, preventing the tyranny of individualism from destroying mankind.

On the other hand, if one views government as a means of cooperative collaboration, and something which allows us all to live together peacefully and (hopefully) harmoniously while taming our baser human instinct, then we should consider government as a good thing.

In either case, politics is the means by which governments operate. It is impossible to separate politics from government - even in a absolute Dictatorship system, politics are still a fundamental portion of how government works. The Word "politics" itself denotes a competition of ideas about governance; how those ideas compete (and how they "win" or impact the populace) depend on the government form.

Thus, politics is a neutral term, it cannot be inherently "good" or "bad".