JONATHAN RAUCH: How American Politics Went Insane.

What we are seeing is not a temporary spasm of chaos but a chaos syndrome.

Chaos syndrome is a chronic decline in the political system’s capacity for self-organization. It begins with the weakening of the institutions and brokers—political parties, career politicians, and congressional leaders and committees—that have historically held politicians accountable to one another and prevented everyone in the system from pursuing naked self-interest all the time. As these intermediaries’ influence fades, politicians, activists, and voters all become more individualistic and unaccountable. The system atomizes. Chaos becomes the new normal—both in campaigns and in the government itself.

Read the whole thing.

The insanity is merely a symptom of a deeper illness: That our constitutional republic has become popular democracy, now entering the inevitable end-phase of a positive feedback loop.