One of the few things we can be certain of with complex systems is that effects are not consequences of single causes. The US's political tribalism is clearly a negative for the nation, but is a consequence of history, not the signal flaw in a machine. It is a particularly vicious aspect of the system, I'd agree, as it tends to feed back and make the whole system increasingly dysfunctional.

The US looks very much like a nation in precipitous decline. Its hapless response to the current crisis may be the coup de grace.