It’s not really true that the founding fathers didn’t see this coming. Here’s a section of Pres. George Washington’s farewell address to the nation:
“All obstructions to the execution of the Laws, all combinations and associations, under whatever plausible character, with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle, and of fatal tendency. They serve to organize faction, to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put, in the place of the delegated will of the nation, the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphs of different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill-concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common counsels, and modified by mutual interests.
“However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines, by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people, and to usurp for themselves the reins of government; destroying afterwards the very engines, which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”
But this is ridiculous, because surely no “cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men” will ever get into the White House…
How does it all get resolved? Not sure, but if Churchill was right (and he often was), we’ll “do the right thing — after they’ve tried everything else.” Maybe we’ll put the investigations branch under the Supreme Court, because they’re not partisan at all…
