The “friendlier” nation-building stuff, from being invited to help (as in the original example) to installing new states in countries we’ve conquered (you see now why the quotes on “friendlier”).
Less so the coups. Usually with those we just want some degree of fealty or alignment. Dictators are easier to predict and control in that way, and one fuck of a lot cheaper to install than a functioning democracy.
From what I gather in the Federalist Society Papers, the original intent was that we would reinvent our country every 25 years or so, draft a new constitution and incorporate all of the changes that we needed to continue to function with the precept of being a great society, "Of the people, by the people, for the people".
However, requiring 100% of states to affirm the new constitution was difficult enough in 1776 when there were only 13 states and they all had a common enemy to band together against.
Doing that now would probably be impossible or require antilogic so extreme no human could read it without their ears bleeding from the brain hemorrhage.
> From what I gather in the Federalist Society Papers, the original intent was that we would reinvent our country every 25 years or so
I think you are confusing in name the Federalist Papers with the modern and, except in attempt to steal glory, unrelated Federalist Society, and confusing in substance the Federalist Papers with a letter written by Thomas Jefferson to John Adams in which he expressed the conclusion that all laws (incl. Cobstitutions) must, based on then-current actuarial data, sunset in approximately that timeframe to avoid the living being ruled over by the dead.
Just to be pedantic: constitutional amendments, in the USA, require a maximum of 75% of the states to agree. Minimally 66.6% (repeating, of course) of them to call a constitutional convention, and ratify the results.
None of that challenges your important points about the intentions of the founders, nor the difficulties upon which their project has run around.
Less so the coups. Usually with those we just want some degree of fealty or alignment. Dictators are easier to predict and control in that way, and one fuck of a lot cheaper to install than a functioning democracy.