It is important to note that the growth of the federal government is a 20th century phenomenon.
a. Original design: The most important concept included in the original design is the system of checks and balances. In addition, the original design had specific provisions for decentralization.
b. 1st hundred years: Growth of government occurred at the state and city level to accommodate the needs of growing commerce and manufacturing. Basic features of the original design remained in place. Innovation in government during the 1st hundred years took place in an competitive environment as state and local governments competed to attract business.
c. 2nd hundred years: Massive growth of federal government to provide public goods and regulation. Public goods include military, transportation and education and regulation includes monetary and fiscal policy, environment and safety. To some extent the growth of the federal government is simply a reflection of the fact that the US became a single economy by the end of the 19th century.
The growth of government fundamentally changed the structure of government. In the 19th century business was regulated by common law through court cases. Today, business is regulated by bureaucracy. With the Administrative Procedures Act and similar legislation at the state levels after WW II both the federal and state courts will not judge governmental bureaucracies on matters of fact, just law. That is the courts will only consider whether the bureaucracy followed procedures. This means that the bureaucracy is judged politically by the corresponding executives and legislatures but not professionally.
Moreover, government is now an enormous bureaucracy to provide the public goods and the mandated regulation. Consequently, government has become very complex with most aspects of government performed in specialized legislative committees and executive bureaucracies. This raises the issue of whether government through its specialization serves the common weal or just the interests of the specialized constituencies served by specialized committees. In addition as government has become more complex more and more of the details are delegated to the bureaucracy for implementation. The details decided by the bureaucracy are known as administrative law. Moreover, most legislation is so ambiguously written that the courts must take decades to clarify the ambiguities through precedent setting.
Another important feature of current government is the fact the the 10th amendment since the 1930s has been interpreted to mean that Congress will determine how government should be decentralized between the various levels of government. In my opinion this mechanism for decentralization does not lead to effective government?