A minor quibble but I think much of the decay of our institutions can be laid at the feet of the people and the decline of the culture. We became fat, dumb and happy and the rest is history. Nothing new BTW. It has happened countless times before. Even with our vaunted Constitution, it alone was not enough to protect a people who were unwilling or too distracted to defend it. I harp on this often but I believe our worthless media in all its forms has been the primary driver of this decay. For too long, we BELIEVED these seditious bastards.
I have a current client who wont go a night without Brian Williams. His wife says it’s a ritual for him. The appeal must be metaphysical because it sure isn’t content based. People are not always rational.. to say the least. Most are not much more than a collection of repeating patterns. And the patterns are not even theirs. Someone else gave them to them when they were little! ..and then they want to say they are acting ‘rationally’.