Dammit! I haven't finished binge-watching GoT so I don't dare watch the Westeros one as I don't want any spoilers!
FlyMe your quote from politico made me think and it's true to a great extent. That it all comes down to us, the people, to protect the Constitution, not the other way round.
The 'problem' with our Constitution was that it was written, as a rule, by men of principle and high moral standards (of the day). It was written expecting that our leaders would be leaders because they were well-educated, high-principled, and felt a duty to their fellow citizens to guide the country in the 'right way', meaning 'all men are created equal, etc'. That the 'ordinary' citizenry could have great faith in them. Granted, by today's standards some things they believed in were questionable or down right immoral (slavery, non-equality of women/other ethic groups) but by and large they were a pretty 'stand up group of guys'. I think they just couldn't foresee what would happen in society over the next 200+ years and whilst they made provisions for not being able to establish a monarchy, they didn't really make a strong provision for a possible plutocracy, dictatorship, or the rampant corruption caused by the massive greed for power and/or money we see today in so many of our politicians, because they believed the country would continue to be governed based on the principles they believed in. That's not to say we haven't had some bad leaders before (Teapot Dome and Tammany Hall in NY come to mind), but today's group really steals takes the cake!
I know it's a 'trite statement of the obvious' but the Founding Fathers (and Mothers) really must be rolling in their graves.