Your entire post is exactly correct.
Lots of people rage at the GOP establishment, individual politicians, etc, etc, and then hold the Founders up as the paragons of perfection. The truth is our system IS a two party system since it does not allow for coalition building. 3rd, 4th, 5th, etc, party's can't work here under our system. Why don't people ever rage at the founders and try talk about changing the Constitution? So many folks here want to start up a new party (as people declare every election cycle), only to see the idea predictably crash and burn. So why do so few people actually point out the very flaws in the system that prevent these new party's from having any chance of success?
A two party system like ours means it will be only once or maybe twice in a life time that any of us ever gets to vote for someone we are truly excited about in a national general election. That is just how it works. The system is geared to be as much about defeating the opposition as it is about electing our own candidates. Our only real opportunity to shape these elections is within the primary of one of the 2 major party's. It sucks, but there is simply no way around it.
“The system is geared to be as much about defeating the opposition as it is about electing our own candidates”
That is the key to what the Founders were thinking. They saw this as the protector of Liberty.
“A two party system like ours means it will be only once or maybe twice in a life time that any of us ever gets to vote for someone we are truly excited about in a national general election.”
Kind of reminds me of the late 19th century. A time of great economic growth. A time when Washington DC was not all that important to people’s lives. Another time like this might be needed right now.