Why do people always make the goobermint sound like some otherworldly robot lizard people in a comic book tower? Literally just shitty neighbors with asshole priorities. The goal of “mom/pop” shops is to trample on your metaphorical corpse to become bill gates and then president where you throw some fundraisers for the poor and keep getting rich.
It was designed for trust fund kids by trust fund kids and Federalism rewards those who share similar desires of capitalist conquest or moral ambiguity. It was strategically crafted to protect wealthy minority rule from unpredictable monarchies and violent democratic majorities. The end goal being the consolidation of wealth and the preservation of power to protect that wealth. And the republic is propped up by our friends and neighbors who make a choice to violently protect this private property scheme for certain incentives and a harmless vote.
There are no alien AI with propaganda rays and time chambers. Just a few million rich people, a pile of papers and their 100s of millions of followers who benefit enough to continue their support with hope for a chance to replace an empty seat at the table. In the US the state does not represent everyone because it was never designed to do so but it represents enough to continue the normal functions of checks and balances. It’s pretty easy to identify which groups don’t currently or will never get represented based on historical record but a perceived lack of functional governance is not inherent to any central or decentralized state.
It’s really just your government that sucks and by that I mean the people who designed it and those who maintain it. And anyone else who copied it. The uncomfortable reality being it’s not actually broke but working normally. Those responsible are normal everyday assholes doing regular shit but reinforcing a labor culture based on slavery and subjugation of others. The privileged few who are destined for the pursuit of liberty and exercising of personal freedoms that lead to technical and social progress of “civilized society” at the expense of anything not contributing to the consumption of goods and distribution of profit. The government doesn’t have to be literal baby eating monsters in order to morally justify a system wide reboot.