Has anyone ever tried to change regulations?

I suspect that I actually did inadvertently cause a regulation to be changed. When I was a young PFC, no one said a 3 day pass couldn't be taken in the middle of the week....so I did. The SGM hit the roof, but there was nothing he could do. Soon afterwards, the regulation on Leaves and Passes WAS changed, to require at least one non duty day for 3 day passes, and two non duty days for four day passes.

I've been given to understand that those restrictions have been taken back out of the regulation, but I wouldn't put it past old SGM Anderson to have pushed for the change......

Yes. I once tried to get the base CO/XO at NAS North Island to lift the restrictions on cabs coming on base. This was just after 9/11 and the number of DUI's on my ship alone was averaging 5 per month. My belief was that if cabs were allowed to come on base, Sailors would stop trying to drive drunk onto base. From where the main gate was to where the ship was located was about 1 mile. That's a long way to walk when you're drunk.
I submitted this idea to my leadership (CMC/XO/CO) and they thought it was a great idea and submitted it to their base counterparts. The base XO shot it down because "the logistics would be too difficult." In other words, he was just too lazy to act on my suggestion or he enjoyed busting drunk drivers.
Fast forward 5 years. The base leadership changed the policy of allowing cabs on base and guess what? DUI's went down tremendously. Of course they touted the idea as their own, even after I mentioned to the ship's leadership that I had proposed that exact idea 5 years earlier.