[dodobirdlord]

This is a crippling problem for the United States. In the absence of effective governance by Congress, control of the country slips ever increasingly into the hands of an Imperial President and an unelected Supreme Court. While Congress debates "only the most important issues" Presidents have taken to ruling by decree through executive orders and policy-setting Federal agencies, pushing the line as far as the Supreme Court will tolerate , politicizing the court and damaging national trust in impartial justice in the process. Recall that the Supreme Court granted to itself its most important powers in Marbury v Madison. It's a castle built on sand, and the only things that binds a President to respect its decisions are tradition and the belief of the American people in the idea of the court as a non-partisan institution that should be respected.

And then every 4-8 years the President changes parties, scraps all major ongoing efforts of their predecessor, repeals their decrees, replaces all of the experts and advisors they have brought into the government, and reverses their foreign and domestic policies.

This disfunction has been highlighted within the Chinese Communist Party as the main reason why China will eventually (soon) eclipse the United States in world significance. A country that is governed in such a schizophrenic manner cannot compete long-term with a country capable of planning on time horizons or more than 8 years (and sometimes only two!).