In the beginning...
There were 13 colonies, each considered themselves a sovereign independent state (what we would call a nation today). Virginia and New York, for instance, considered themselves as sovereign as England and France.
The peace treaty between Great Britain and the United States was between Britain and the 13 specifically named independent states.
As a means to largely defend themselves from powerful colonial powers as well as to discourage warring between themselves (Virginia, for instance, claimed the territory today used by Michigan, Ohio and numerous other future states), they created what was effectively a neighborhood association.
They first tried out the Articles of Confederation but it proved to be too weak. Many veterans of the Revolutionary war remembered darkly the starving men in their ranks because congress was too weak to get them the food and resources they needed.
To this end, we got the constitution. Originally, it had no bill of rights. Its authors didn't consider it necessary because this new federal government didn't have the power to do anything other than what was expressly mentioned in the constitution. They feared that even having a bill of rights might imply to future politicians that the federal government had the power to enact laws that could somehow violate such a bill of rights.
In compromise, the bill of rights included the 10th amendment that made clear that the federal government did not have any powers that weren't expressly given to it in the constitution. All power would rest with the individual states and the people of those states.
The problem was the Supreme Court. Being a federal institution appointed by the federal President, the Supreme Court would constantly find new powers given to the constitution. The states responded with the 11th amendment which as designed to slap down the Supreme Court in making clear that the states were the supreme authority, not the federal government.
...
Time Passes...
Of course, today, the federal government has managed to get all kinds of power. The federal government provides a retirement plan to citizens of the states, it has a minimum wage law (where did that power come from -- states have that power, the federal government does not but still does it).
So how did that happen? The answer is the supreme court. The founding fathers were brilliant in most respects but could have used some experience in game theory.
The federal government is made up of 3 branches:
- The executive which was picked by the states via the electoral college.
- The legislature which is picked by the citizens of the states (now anyway).
- And then... the judicial branch which isn't picked by the states but instead by the federal executive and conformed by the federal legislature branch. Oops.
Not surprisingly, the federal government is naturally biased in favor of power being with it rather than the states. As time passes, more and more power gets concentrated into the federal government from the states. There is no question of if this will continue to happen but only the progression of it.
What the founding fathers should have had is the judiciary be appointed/elected/whatever by the states instead of the federal government.