I maintain that the issue is that they keep trying to have someone like a president. That doesn’t work. You need a council that has executive power, that way if one person starts getting corrupted, they can be winnowed out. If you really want it to work, you need to outlaw political parties from day one, and require that no one that wants to hold political office is eligible to do so.
I base that on the laws and regulations that the US has for immigration, vs the ones that countries like The UK, Germany, Japan, Canada and Australia have. There are navigable paths to US citizenship for people that don’t have skills that are needed in the US. For many other countries you either have to be rich or skilled to get in. Poor people aren’t welcome. Poor people aren’t exactly welcome in the US either, but they can get in.