What is the difference between our form of government and a dictatorship, legally? When I was a child we never learned about executive orders in school. We were taught that the president had limited power. Where did all of this power come from?
Congress began assigning its constitutional duty to make all laws, to the executive branch in big way under FDR. Along the way, Scotus thought it was cool to make law as well.
When legislative power is exercised by the unelected, despotism is established.
Everything else is irrelevant until this fundamental contradiction and offense to republican government is solved.