Anyone else having trouble following the plot of Wolf Hall?

Slogging along through "Wolf Hall," honestly does it make sense to tell the story this way, scene after scene, hundreds of them, each one short (not more than 3 pp at most), all from the POV of Thomas Cromwell and, most annoyingly, never any background, transition, reflection, stock-taking. I have to laugh at myself here because when I started this book I was impressed by the technique and thought it would be a relief to read a historical novel not bogged down in exposition - but this one's the opposite. I'm half-way through and still at sea about what's happening here, why, and why I should care. Obviously we all know that Henry VIII wants an annulment of his first marriage (Katherine of Aragon) so he can marry Anne Boleyn and, he hopes, have a male heir. The church (i.e., the Pope) has to sanction the annulment. But that can't be all - there's obviously a global struggle for power, for the wealth that the Roman church controls in England, which Henry would like to seize. Very little is made of this - it seems to be a story, such as it is, of petulant and spoiled people. And what exactly is Cromwell's role? He listens to a lot of different people - Cardinal Wolsey, Henry, Anne, Katherine, othere courtiers - but we don't see his so-called great mind at work. He seems to try to help Wolsey work out a deal with the church, but Wolsey dies (offstage, so to speak), then Cromwell is closer to Henry - but what exactly is he doing? What role is he playing in these historical events? I'm half-way through and have no idea.