I respectfully disagree that competing interests fighting each other is the only way to prevent this.
For example, parents could start taking the responsibility to make sure that their children are being taught the roughly 28 pages of the Constitution and its amendments, particularly statutes like Section 8 of Article I, Article V and the 10th Amendment which clarify the Founding States' division of federal and state government powers. This is evidently something that has not been done since the Constitution was ratified imo.
The problem is that if every voter knew about the federal governent's constitutonally limited powers, then the networks would have to scramble to find another real-life soap opera to keep people's eyes glued to their TV screens between highly profitable commercials.
Sorry, but the US Supreme Court will NEVER give a rat’s rear about the 10th Amendment again. And the lower courts will follow them, and Congress and the President are happy about it.
The anti-federalists were right. We now have a huge, almost all-powerful central government.