...which is a hopeless effort. Trust me, that ALWAYS happens.
At most, a society can hold it off, but only if the society is also unsuccessful in being secure. Notice that the USA was quite secure for decades. That security came from strength and that strength generated political power worth fighting over. That fight drew the unscrupulous and criminal to grasp the power on offer. That leads to tyranny every time.
True. To paraphrase what I've learned here over the years. It's no so much that power corrupts, it's that the corruptable are so attracted to that power.