I don't have a problem with the Catholic Church = Church of Christ. That seeems to be your problem.
The rules as you call them were not created by "guys" but by learned Fathers, Doctors, Popes, many of them saints and Councils of the Church through the Holy Ghost.
It is true that not every pope, bishop, priest or Catholic throughout history has been a paragon of virtue, who could expect this? Nevertheless the unworthiness of the clergy has never invalidated their teaching unless it deviated from the Word of God; Martin Luther is a prime example.
This silly notion that the Church betrayed Our Lord at the time of Constantine gives people an excuse to construct their own version of Christianity like Luther and the Protestants did and so-called progressive Catholics are doing today. After rejecting all teachings which one finds inconvenient, all one has to do today is 'convince' oneself that one is a good fellow at heart and loves one's neighbour and that's all that is needed.