Crazyguy,
I agree with you: much of the Hebrew Bible is shaped by the religious elites who were taken into captivity, and they produced material that would support their intentions. They said that the calamities which had befallen the nation resulted from people failing to obey their prophets.
And so they wrote all of their opponents out of history or demonised them, including the priests who were not based at Jerusalem. The reshaped history that they produced is now known as the Deuteronomic History, and it includes Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings.
Unfortunately, today we see the consequences of people believing that the propaganda represented actual history. (Not that Jerusalem was ever the capital of Israel.)
Doug