They knew the nature of man as essentially fallen and they knew they were trying to construct a governing process to be governed by fallen men. So they contrived a brilliant system of limited government controlled by checks and balances, mixed with competing interest groups in various levels of government.
It is not the most efficient form of government. The Chinese government of chairman Mao was far more efficient, and succeeded in killing tens of millions of Chinese very efficiently. Why do we have civilian control of our military? Not because we believe that civilians are better generals than our generals, it is because they are under civil control.
So it is true as Churchill put it, democracy is the worst form of government apart from all the others. We must ask ourselves, do we want the tendency of the mob (whom our framers gave a voice but whom they also thoroughly distrusted) toward excess to be tolerated within limits or do we want the man on horseback, the Hitlers or the Stalins, the Napoleons and, yes, the Caesars to rule all so much more efficiently? At the end of the day an inefficient, divided government is the price we pay to stay free men. It is a cheap enough price.
So I entirely take your meaning when you say, "This virus stampede is but a symptom of a larger stampede of the unreasoning mob." Let's rest in the knowledge that the pendulum has always swung back so balanced, divided government will again prevail.
