There are four major structural issues I can think up off the top of my head (this is unfair — we're discussing my wife's job): 1. Modern gerrymandering is pro

There are four major structural issues I can think up off the top of my head (this is unfair — we're discussing my wife's job): 1. Modern gerrymandering is probably the Achilles heel that'll bring the US to its knees. 2. Judicial capture is the standard playbook for autocratic take-overs of democracies — there needs to be a reaffirmation process & it needs to be a "yes - no > 1/2*senators". 3. The electoral college is particularly vulnerable to bad actors at the state level, and the opportunity cost to capture the college is higher than the capture cost. 4. The Senate, itself, was a known-to-be-bad compromise to build a confederation, rather than a formal union into a single, sovereign State. I'm not entirely convinced of the last one: I kinda like the idea if 50 separate competing democracies all trying to come up with great ways to be a state, with a fairly low barrier-to-migrate.