&gt; the Senate [is] charged with preventing this from happening. But the Senate was gutted<p>There is a gradual drift over time; most complex systems accumulate errors, imbalances, and unexpected problems over time. However, there is another problem happening right now that I&#x27;ve only seen mentioned[1] by Dan Geer. He suggests that technology has changed the balance of powers:<p><pre><code>    The central dynamic internal to government is, and always
    has been, that the only way for either the Executive or the Legislature
    to control the many sub-units of government is by way of how much
    money they can hand out.
    ...
    Suppose, however, that surveillance becomes too cheap to meter,
    that is to say too cheap to limit through budgetary processes.  Does
    that lessen the power of the Legislature more, or the power of the
    Executive more?  I think that ever-cheaper surveillance substantially
    changes the balance of power in favor of the Executive and away
    from the Legislature. While President Obama was referring to
    something else when he said &quot;I&#x27;ve Got A Pen And I&#x27;ve Got A Phone,&quot;
    he was speaking to exactly this idea -- things that need no
    appropriations are outside the system of checks and balances.
</code></pre>
The &quot;power of the purse&quot; doesn&#x27;t mean much when technology drives prices towards zero. This is made much worse by the &quot;humans need not apply&quot;[2] shift in jobs from humans to automation.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=nT-TGvYOBpI#t=625" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=nT-TGvYOBpI#t=625</a> <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;geer.tinho.net&#x2F;geer.blackhat.6viii14.txt" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;geer.tinho.net&#x2F;geer.blackhat.6viii14.txt</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU</a>