Their playbook has worked for 200+ years. They've not come up against POTUS and an army of anonymous frogs with hivemind before though.
They need a new playbook.
We're looking at treason to the power of treason.
It's been trickled out so that folk don't notice, and the ones charged with safeguarding the Republic either took bribes, or were blackmailed into stepping aside. Failing that, they killed themselves. All done with ever more impressive circuses to keep the sheep asleep.