Is it a country of a bunch of countries?

 The US was initially 13 states, and they were fairly independent. There was not even a common currency at the start. The current Supreme Court seems to think of the states as countries. This explains their decisions on voting rights, gerrymandering and abortion.

The Red States quickly realized, once Trump was gone, that the movement to the right had lost momentum. The solution was to increase state rights and reject mandates from Biden.

All this reminds me of a book by Kurt Vonnegut called Slapstick. It had a crumbled USA and kings in Michigan and Oklahoma. King of Florida DeSantis is making his own army now.

Major changes happened to the the US after the Civil War. Several amendments guaranteed the right to vote. The constitution allowed amendments, so eventually we got women to vote and an income tax. Congress gained power. The court is now trying to hold it back. A liberal court could easily expand federal power. Those things are in the amendments, not so much the Constitution.