As a person who is still employed by a local government... I have seen the inner workings at a local level and we should all be very afraid. It is very scary what just a little power does to many people. I think that in previous generations this may have been held in check more frequently by peoples’ moral compasses.
Power corrupts, the more power the more corrupting.
Your right without even a moral compass we are in real trouble. There was a very good reason the Texas Constitution was written to prohibit any athirst from holding any office of trust under Texas. If a man or woman does not fear the divine consequences of God he or she is all the more corruptible in life by power.
If we did not have a the idea that the Federal Government defines not only its own limits but the limits of our States in regard to domestic government as well, to the point where we could not even require in our constitution such commonsense measures to mitigate the cost of the corruption of power. Our life, property, and liberty would be in a far more secure position today.
Instead and for the last 150 years we have had a lawless Federal Government bound only by its own discretion.