Does each citizen need to become a vigilant member of the general public oversight committee, spending his days and nights making sure that the institutions work correctly, are responding appropriately to the threats etc? Are they qualified to evaluate that? Do they even understand the severity of the threats?
Or are they, in effect, the amplification apparatus for journalists who, by and large, also know very little about the things they write about?
I understand the point, it feels like a noble and important thing, to be informed, have an opinion and be ready to tackle the problem when the White House calls. But they probably won't call, not me, not you, not anyone getting their information about anything from the daily news. They'll call the people who are giving the information to the news.
To give an accompanying reply to the sibling commenter saying "that's why we have democracy, so we can delegate": that's why democracy in its current state works so poorly; a disengaged electorate.
The "we have institutions to work on things" line could only be uttered by someone so disconnected from reality that they actually believe those institutions can be effective without oversight.