Representative democracy (republic) works, the problem is that our ancestors were really stupid and ceded too much control to banks and to the federal government. Had they actually thought about the future implications of a stronger federal government, or of blue-blooded bankers gaining political power, we wouldn't be in this mess. Of course, it doesn't help that we've also given so much territory to radical ideologies like feminism. "Just the right to vote" was always a carefully-crafted trap designed to take a seemingly innocuous concept and turn it into one of the cornerstones of western ruin. But that's a different can of worms.

The key is not to eliminate the system of a republic. It's to get back to what made the republic great in the first place.