If you did a survey worldwide of democracies, I’d be very surprised to find any that didn’t have norm tipping points, where technically things could be pushed if any adherence to previous norms were abandoned.
The irony is that this behavior isn’t exceptional for the US, historically. We’ve just lived through a long recent period (1974-2024) where norms were more respected.
Historically (pre-1900) there were some colossal political anything-goes knife fights within and between the branches of American government.
One consequence of that was the explicit stripping of powers from the executive and substitution of independent boards to check its power. Those were eventually removed in the 80s in a drive to increase efficiency. See history before: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Service_Reform_Act_of_...
I expect that post-Trump, when Democrats regain legislative power, there are going to be a lot of efforts to buttress and expand the role of executive-independent bodies.
The irony is that this behavior isn’t exceptional for the US, historically. We’ve just lived through a long recent period (1974-2024) where norms were more respected.
Historically (pre-1900) there were some colossal political anything-goes knife fights within and between the branches of American government.
One consequence of that was the explicit stripping of powers from the executive and substitution of independent boards to check its power. Those were eventually removed in the 80s in a drive to increase efficiency. See history before: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Service_Reform_Act_of_...
I expect that post-Trump, when Democrats regain legislative power, there are going to be a lot of efforts to buttress and expand the role of executive-independent bodies.