However [political parties] may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves the reins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.
- George Washington's farewell address, Sept. 17, 1796
Adams and Franklin also pretty much predicted and anticipated the worst as well, knowing the greedy nature of men-in-power would eventually blow up the Republic.
Gotta give Ike his due as well when he warned of the "Miitary-Industrial Complex."