RE: The “system” is designed that way.
Can you cite for me where in the Constitution such a split is catered for?
Can you show me in the US Constitution where state secession is prohibited?
Thinking logically, each state’s governor becomes the head of state in the event that the federal government falls. 50 separate nations would be the result, with infrastructure inside each state to mostly sustain that state’s needs. There are of course things that only the federal government does at this juncture. State’s governments are designed this way on purpose. You don’t have a state board of elections that handles all the states elections. You don’t have a state department of transportation that handles other states transportation needs. Its pretty much like the other person stated. Even the military is somewhat accounted for with state national guards.
And as far as citing in the constitution- its called the 10th amendment.
It isn't covered in the Constitution because everything that needed to be said on the matter was covered in the Declaration of Independence where a right to independence is explicitly asserted.
Remember, the Constitution was written only 11 years after the Declaration, and nobody had forgotten the right to Independence expressed therein.
The split is catered for in the 10th amendment. Constitutionally the Federal government is very limited. The states have allowed it to become strong and they can take it back down at their pleasure.