I think the parties part is the key, especially how it has infected the judicial branch as well. Madison claimed that the defense against the tyranny of the ma

I think the parties part is the key, especially how it has infected the judicial branch as well. Madison claimed that the defense against the tyranny of the majority was that "...the society itself will be broken into so many parts, interests, and classes of citizens, that the rights of individuals, or of the minority, will be in little danger from interested combinations of the majority. In a free government the security for civil rights [...] consists in the one case in the multiplicity of interests, and in the other in the multiplicity of sects. The degree of security in both cases will depend on the number of interests and sects." It seems that parties, and particularly blind obedience to the head of the party (whether the president, the speaker, etc), has diminished the "number of interests and sects." (Note, this is my understanding of Madison, but not as a scholar of US history.)