The crafters of the United States constitution wanted a system of government wherein the people had a voice in their ruling but at the same time, the crafters were worried that the people would rule like a mob without checks and that the majority would persecute the minorities in the country.
Both the Federalists and the Anti-Federalists agreed that there were dangers inherent in the system, which is why the crafters created a system with checks and balances on the lawmaking process and a bicameral legislature with a body, the US Senate, whose job is to ensure that cooler heads always prevail.
This shows the influence of thinkers like Edmund Burke, a British philosopher, who advocated for incremental change.
The cost of this is that things do move slowly and sometimes the legislatures misses the ball. The response to this has been a stronger Executive branch with the power to create temporary executive orders but the process is still slow.
The benefit is an incremental system that has lasted longer than any system of Government in the world.
The question is whether or not America's system can adequately work in a time when new challenges and threats are coming every minute.