Why do so many people lust for power?

I cannot understand it at all, I find it utterly absurd. Can anybody explain it to me?

What even is power? It is utterly immaterial. Hitler rose steadily up through the ranks and eventually took control of most of Europe, but for what? You can tell people to do stuff. Great. How does that make you happy? What does it achieve?

Is it a knee-jerk reaction against nihilism? Something built in biologically?

Almost every single politician at the fore seems to suffer from exactly the same lust, and as a result they continually make idiotic, careerist decisions to the detriment of society, and the pointlessness of it all makes me mad. It would be so easy to turn everything around, the vital decisions for the whole of society are so obvious, and yet nobody makes them, because everybody who can make a difference suffers from this ridiculous myopia.

Just why?