Which ultimately leaves us with no feedback loop at all except "burn the whole thing down and start over".

I forget where I read it, but there's a cycle with governments. It wasn't Plato but I think some other Greek or Roman political theorist. It goes monarchy -> oligarchy -> democracy-> repeat.

Monarch calls the shots, he gets replaced by the elite, their rule devolves into demagoguery and mob rule, and then the inevitable chaos causes a strong-man to step in and bring monarchy back and the cycle begins anew. Saw that cycle and I see it a lot now. Course iirc it was more descriptive than prescriptive so go figure