alternatehistory.com

The three branches of power in the United States government nominally serve as check and balance against each other, presumably keeping one from getting stronger than the other, and within each branch there's a variety of power: the Senate's filibuster, the varied levels of power of the Speaker of the House, the rise of the so-called imperial Presidency, the shifts in the Vice Presidency's authority, the changing regulatory power of the Executive Branch, the Supreme Court's activism or inactivity, and the nominal balance of power between the States and the Federal Government.

The challenge I set before you is as follows. Given the following statements as true:

1. The POD can be no earlier than January 1, 1900
2. The United States Government must still exist and cannot have fallen
3. No non-OTL constitutional Amendments can be passed

Change the way the United States government works, dramatically. Adjust where power and authority lie. Make the President a mere figurehead and the true authority lies among the Governors of powerful states, or the Speaker of the House rules the chamber with an iron fist. The Supreme Court can be a rubber stamp, or it's well known that it's not worth passing a law because they'll strike it down. The Vice President exercises considerable authority -- or has become so irrelevant there's no longer even an office at the Capitol for him.

Just sketch out a plausible POD and a chain of events that leads to a different structure of authority.
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