Yeah, I feel this often confuses what "efficiency" means from the company's perspective vs wider society's perspective.

A company that streamlines its operations and archives a huge profit margin is clearly efficient from the PoV of its own management and shareholders. However from the PoV of its customers, it's maximally inefficient, because it tries to extract the highest price for the least amount of work done that people are still willing to pay.

Accountability absolutely starts at the top. If we expect to re-establish accountability for rubes first while turning a blind eye to those in power, then we are just playing into their hands.

Politicians can't just appoint themselves to Congress or state legislatures. You may think they're idiots but citizens are voting for them. Is it possible that some of those "idiots" aren't as stupid as you think but rather just have different priorities and values?

If we can ban congress trading somehow…

This sounds much more like "Please Don't Hold My Politicians Accountable" than "I favor accountability", FWIW.

I know decorum here disfavors talking about specific parties and actors, and this thread is 100% sideways. Nonetheless this kind of attitude is at best only a stepping stone to recovery. You can't both-sides your way through a constitutional crisis.

Not unique to politicians, any large organisation who doesn't have a strong single leader sees this. It's nothing new either, with the Peter principle, the Dilbert Principle, even the Gervais Principle, recognising the symptoms.

Paging Sarah Palin, you are wanted at the ticket counter. Paging sarah palin…

Having the authority to sanction a president does not necessarily mean that person has the power to overthrow a president. And the people with the most direct power (military and secret service) lack the authority to use it. Mostly these factors can balance out so that power is not concentrated as much as it seems.

Ever heard of voting?

You’re downvoted because it appears cynical about something that appears to have no reasonable alternative but you’re correct

Power isn't inherently corrupting. It just is.

People can be corruptable, fallible, greedy and unprepared to wield power over others - especially the people that seek out power.

The solution is to build better people from the ground up (culture and education) AND create institutional protections that function during both the absence and presence of substantial political power. I'd argue that, in the USA, we've done neither and appear surprised when it keeps turning out poorly for us.