The system today is corrupted by human nature. We were told by the Founders from the start that we had a Republic, "if we can keep it". That wasn't a warning of foreign interference, it was a warning of vigilance agianst the corruption and laziness within us. America is not exceptional because of some magical unknown property. America was, and is fast hurtling away from, exceptional for four reasons:

• The government was founded on a rational philosophy that emphasizes decision making based on reality and human nature, not on Utopian idealism. Human thought reached it's peak with Hume, Locke, Hobbes, et al. "Intellectualism" has degenerated in leftist excuse-making.
• Despite the propaganda regarding Native American genocide, the simple fact is that there were never enough Native Americans to effectively oppose the mass of humanity fleeing European tyranny. I will not claim that the settlers were completely morally right in their actions, but I won't make that argument regarding various tribes either.
• The overlord class never had enough power to counteract the yeomanry, by which I mean educated, moral, and self-supporting citizens. When the yeoman holds the power in any society, that society will advance in knowledge and wealth. We have seen what happens when leftist impulses put the lever of power into the hands of the willfully ignorant and perpetually undisciplined.

• I edited my post to add this; you are right in that our isolation from the world also helped to protect us from the Euro power games. This was a factor in our growth.

American success was not based upon the idea of capitalism alone; it was also based upon the idea that self-disciplined people would be responsible for mainlining a moral society in the using capitalism. Since each generation became greater in wealth and lesser in morality, the vigilance against corruption and mob rule has lessened. De Tocqueville warned against our society buying itself comfort from the public coffers, and his warning has borne itself out.

The point of the post was that the last line of protecting that idea through the rule of law is the LE and security communities. They have to choose duty and vigilance over corruption, or the system is unrecoverable, instead of simply hard to fix as it now.

Thanks for the comments and the plug, @ crok!