What else could it be? Elected institutions are made up of people who agree to a laws, rules, and norms that everyone else agrees on. It's all a farce built up on agreements to keep things running smoothly.

There is no system you could structure rigidly enough that it would not be vulnerable to bad actors. You can insulate yourself by distributing authority as we have, but if those authorities stop playing following the laws, rules, and norms well you end up where we are at, devolving into facisim.