I don't want to be "that guy", but the United States isn't and was never meant to be a democracy. But that doesn't mean it's any sort of tyrany either. It's a system of checks and balances promoting deadlock.
You have a limited-time dictator, a room full of law nerds, and a Congress half of which is democratic, and half of which represents "the states".
The dictator can do whatever he wants - unless the law nerds or Congress disagree. Congress can do whatever it wants - if you can get both halves of it to agree - unless the dictator or the law nerds disagree - but 2/3 of Congress overwrites the dictator and 3/4 overwrites the law nerds. The law nerds can't do much by themselves and are mostly a reactive force, which are supposed to uphold laws written by others (and generally do so in practice, but of course, not always).
This is a system which promotes the government not doing much, and not changing much, under the philosophy that most change is bad change and no change is better than bad change - while still allowing some good change to flow through the system.
In a democracy, on the other hand, the populus generally always wants change, so that's what they get.
You have a limited-time dictator, a room full of law nerds, and a Congress half of which is democratic, and half of which represents "the states".
The dictator can do whatever he wants - unless the law nerds or Congress disagree. Congress can do whatever it wants - if you can get both halves of it to agree - unless the dictator or the law nerds disagree - but 2/3 of Congress overwrites the dictator and 3/4 overwrites the law nerds. The law nerds can't do much by themselves and are mostly a reactive force, which are supposed to uphold laws written by others (and generally do so in practice, but of course, not always).
This is a system which promotes the government not doing much, and not changing much, under the philosophy that most change is bad change and no change is better than bad change - while still allowing some good change to flow through the system.
In a democracy, on the other hand, the populus generally always wants change, so that's what they get.