Title: How has the US president's power changed over time? - Quora
Headings: How has the US president's power changed over time?
How has the US president's power changed over time?
How have the powers of the President of the United States changed?

Content: The trend is one that steadily moves toward more centralized authority. I would argue that the reason for this is that most Americans have no idea what the Constitution says or why it is important, and that the notion that "the government would never do anything unconstitutional" blinds them to the unconstitutional stuff that the government does in our faces every day. It's an interesting little thing that I have experienced from time to time, with people basically arguing, "The government can't do anything unconstitutional, and they did it, so it MUST be constitutional." Obviously, that disregards the fact that the government can violate the Constitution all it wants if WE don't force them to abide it (I'm not a Constitutionalist, I should say). I've heard people honestly argue that Congress should be abolished--I read a Salon writer make that case within the past year or so. People regularly say the Constitution is no longer relevant. Power tends to collect unto itself; if you give someone an inch, they'll take a mile, and the Executive Branch has certainly done that, with policies that have been going on for well over a century. The President is supposed to be a lame, sitting duck figurehead more than anything--a face, as it were, for the rest of the world, while Congress and the Supreme Court were supposed to be the brain. Now the unelected, unaccountable position of Secretary of State is the figurehead face, the President is the brain, Congress is more like the circulatory system, and unelected, unaccountable, appointed positions and Three Letter Agencies are the norm.