We don't teach history anymore in the halls of academia, so, we do not learn those lessons. The consequences of that are coming down in our day. Thank you for the heads up! Any Millennial reading here who thinks history doesn't matter should take note.
I see a lot of parallels between the Byzantine Empire 1025-1071 and ourselves.
They had two major factions, the civil aristocracy (Dems) and the military aristocracy (GOPe). The civil aristocracy got the upper hand after the death of the great emperor Basil II in 1025, and they proceeded to neglect the imperial defenses in favor of ruinous spending in Constantinople and more privileges for themselves.
But the military aristocracy was not without its faults. Both the military and civil aristocracies oppressed the common people, and thus weakened the military fiber of the empire which depended on the small landowners.
Likewise today, we see Dems and GOPe oppressing the middle class for the benefit of the elite.
The good emperors like Basil II followed a policy of protecting the small landowners against the corrupt aristocracy, much like Trump is doing now!
Unfortunately, the Empire was so dependent on who the emperor was, that a bad emperor could also wreak untold damage. Like a US president today!
Bottom line, you need a country where power is decentralized and widely distributed, so that no one man or group can wreck things. Like the US used to be!