@Remittancegirl they haven't.

We've failed them.

Or rather, the tools are there for us to use, should we want to use them, but unfortunately the population is a combination of misinformed about and disinterested in having a really functioning government.

Take the example of our elected officials declining to hold presidents accountable for breaking laws: it's not that the checks and balances are failing, but that the representatives of the people sanction the behavior, just as the system was intended to work.

But we keep reelecting those reps, so I guess it's what we want.