Didn't use collusion, but did use "mutiny".

I'm ambivalent on the rebalancing of power. Clearly we need something to change, but on the other hand we need the administrative state to be as big as it is to administer most of the programs that help people. There has been a willingness on the part of Congress to cede so much of their power to the executive branch over the last hundred, because it solves two problems for them. One, it makes it so experts get to actually make policy. Two, it absolves individual members when shit goes wrong, because all they voted for, e.g., was "clean water"--they had no idea that would mean that farmer Bill from their district couldn't dump as many metric tons of nitrogen on his lands as the Founders intended.

The downside of that is that public accountability is limited to presidential elections, especially in the case where Congress derelicts their oversight functions (of course, one man's oversight is another man's witch hunt). For the last few administrations Congressional ceding of authority has given way to presidential usurpation of Congressional power. It has been accelerating, and Obama was really bad on this front, IMO. I warned some liberal friends of mine that they shouldn't cheer a lot of his moves, because they're not going to like it so much when another W is in office (I did not anticipate by any stretch that another W would be a dream come true compared to this waking nightmare). But I think all that adds up to a really strong need for Congress to reassert itself as the representative of the people. Even Republicans should be reminded that they are supposed to be the president's boss, not the other way around.

I'm not sure how all that relates to Federalism, but color me skeptical that a return to strong states' rights is a good thing. It might be a good thing for some states on a temporary basis, but we should remember that (1) the 14th amendment was needed for a really good reason, and (2) what seems permanent now is probably fleeting (e.g. Reagan was CA's governor not that long ago, as was Nixon). We need to envision what states' rights look like when bad actors (no Reagan pun intended) are running things, before we decide that's a wise move.

With all the problems of the US government, I still have a lot of faith that we'll be ok when fuckface is gone. We shouldn't throw the baby out with the bathwater.