This op-ed by State Policy Network’s Ray Nothstine first ran at Governing.

Today’s Washington chaos — from the historical ousting of Rep. Kevin McCarthy as House speaker to the propaganda flowing from all sides — is embarrassing and overwhelming to many Americans. However, our founders probably wouldn’t have been surprised because they knew the chaos of human nature quite well.

It was this knowledge which led them to create a separation of powers among the federal branches and to give more powers to state governments than we currently acknowledge or apply. They knew that a powerful central government could cause harm through action, intentions or simple incompetence — which is why they gave the central government very limited powers and encouraged Congress to leave the nation’s capital frequently.

Even today, with a federal government that is intimately involved in everything from health care and education to toilets and lightbulbs, the chaos in Washington is mostly … well, just something people see online. We live our lives, go to work and church and school, and play sports and music and video games. Our daily lives rightly don’t depend on the House of Representatives having a speaker or passing lots of legislation.

Read the full piece at Governing here.