Exactly what is the great experiment?
You're kidding me, right?
If not, the great experiment was our Founding Fathers' creating a self-determination system, as opposed to authoritarian rule as had been the norm through time immemorial. A system that much of the world has emulated to its benefit. That was an "experiment" as some called or implied at the time during the Constitutional debates. Without Googling, do you know what happen in 1987?
You were teasing me, right? You really can't be that obtuse.