>This isn’t even accurate from the perspective of 1789. The articles of confederation created a model akin to what you’ve outlined. The constitution created a quasi blend of popular representation and state level representation in the federal government as a result of several different compromises in order to form a stable national government.

The Constitution vests all powers with the people, and certain powers are delegated to States at the pleasure of the people. The States in turn delegate certain powers to the Federal government at the pleasure of the States.

While it certainly looks the other way, the hierarchy of political power in America has always been People > States > Federal.

The Constitution also mandates separations of power between the three branches of government, unlike say the Westminster system where the Legislative branch elects the Chief Executive at their pleasure.

>That isn’t how anything effectively works today though. The federal government has undergone numerous reforms both explicitly within the constitution and implicitly without any formal constitutional changes. These include the direct election of senators, income taxes, etc but also the effective binding of presidential electors to the outcome of the popular vote within a state.

Indeed, and States Rights vs. Federal Powers continues to remain a hot topic because both sides want more power.

Incidentally, the legal requirement for electors to follow the election result of their State is decided by each State. Most States have this law, but some do not. The Constitution explicitly gives the States this authority, not the Federal government.

>Americans today don’t think of themselves as citizens of the state of California, they think of themselves as Americans solely, the former concept being absolutely foreign and strange to them.

Is it? There are memes about Californians and Floridians, not to mention stereotypes of New Yorkers and Texans among others and otherwise simple pride in your home state (particularly prevalent among servicemen and veterans).

The National Guards of each State are also rooted in the concept that each State is sovereign and will have a military force legally independent from the Federal military force.

>Finally, the EC gives very little benefit to small states. The relative impact is consistently overstated. The only place that small state over representation effectively exists is in the senate.

The benefit to smaller States in the EC is nearly if not perfectly identical to that in Congress because apportionments are deliberately identical.

I agree that the electors being actual people are mostly an artifact of a bygone era at this point. It's even illegal in most States for an elector to vote contrary to what the State's citizens decided.

That being said though, Congress still has authority to act as a failsafe in the event the College deadlocks and Congressmen are most definitely actual people, so maybe there is some obscure value left in Electors likewise being actual people.

In the interests of Chesterton's Fence and Not Fixing What Ain't Broke(tm), so long as the human nature doesn't become a significant problem it's probably not worth checking out the consequences of changing things around.