@TotalSonic sorry, by creaky bits I meant things like the electoral college; the vastly disproportionate representation in the Senate; the crazily unrepresentative House; parliamentary gimmicks like the filibuster; and partisan collaboration across the different branches and level of government. There is a lot that isn't enforced or is based on norms. One reason of many that we're in the current mess is that the US Constitution is not actually a perfectly engineered well oiled machine.