Every country over a long enough time-span becomes sick and corrupt IMO.

I think when you are the world's only superpower, the worst of the world has gotten involved in the US's affairs.

Prior to my birth, the president's role was limited and congress wasnt as paid for by lobbyists.

I'm not an expert on history, but I don't think that holds true, at least based on my limited knowledge. As I understand it, we've always had a government partially beholden to certain large interests, but it's offset by having to maintain some level of restraint on behalf the public interest.

If we look back at our government's founding, we have large interest groups pushing to maintain horrible things such as slavery. But eventually we moved past that.

I won't claim that things couldn't be better; we certainly have a lot of room for improvement. But I don't think we're doing as poorly as many people would like to believe.

Are you kidding? I would jump at the chance to implement New Zealand's system in the US and throw ours in the trash where it belongs.

No, I'm quite serious. Can you explain why you think that? What aspects of New Zealand's government do you favor over the US? And to maintain a balanced view, are there any aspects of it that you'd criticize?

New Zealand has mixed member proportional representation, which is explained well in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QT0I-sdoSXU

The US's political system is extremely antiquated, and is not at all appropriate for a post-industrial economy. We do have a few nice things though, like a very strong protection for speech. Arguably too strong right now though, as it gives corporations nearly unlimited rights to influence elections.