Look at Alexander Hamilton’s proposed constitution. For him the States were mere historical accidents,like English counties. The Anti-federalists discerned that many other men thought like Hamilton, mostly city men, whose model of good government was monarchy, or a disguised republic like Great Britain. Not all the Tories fled to Upper Canada.
In (partial) defense of Hamilton, there is good reason to believe his preference for a stronger executive grew out of a sincere belief that something close to an elective monarchy was necessary if a Republic was not to descend into chaos and fall apart.
Events in France a few years later showed that his concerns were not entirely unfounded.
He turned out to be wrong, but that is no reason to assume his proposals were based solely or even mostly on a lust for personal power.