I get so tired of this notion.
The branches of government are simply not equal. Congress, if united, has absolute power over the other two branches, up to and removing from office any judge or federal officer they choose, and prohibiting the courts from reviewing the constitutionality of specific laws.
Meanwhile, the judiciary and executive branches have strictly limited and temporary power over Congress.
Congress does not use its power, primarily because its members chief goal is re-election, and doing anything dramatic against the other two branched would be definition put that in peril.
But that doesn't mean the constitutional provisions establishing it cease to exist.
I suggest you review the Constitutional checks and balances each branch has over the other two. The Framers were very clear: NO branch was ever intended to have “absolute” power. Perhaps, initially, the judicial branch may have seemed less powerful than the other two, but after Marbury v. Madison established the precedent of judicial review that perception was corrected.