instead of allowing millions of entities the freedom to tackle the crisis from millions of vantage points, we let politicians collapse that down to essentially a few dozen governmental entities in charge, amassing power in people who have adverse incentives to the populace. we willingly gave up most of our optionality and diversity in tackling the challenge.

the better configuration, imho, is a set of governments primarily organized around gathering and disseminating crucial information openly and transparently for all (which they currently do as well). as the nexus of critical information, those governments would then also focus on connecting people and businesses who can advance the democratic goals of the polity. politicians are leaders of their departments and representatives of the electorate, not the other way around (as currently acceded).