my take:
The US is a super unique setup since it has remained in the same political order for so bloody long. A very large part of why this is so is because the us is not supposed to be a direct democracy, its a representative democracy. This sets up multiple checks and balances that are not voted in by the people, but voted in by a community the people voted in. This sets up multiple barriers between populist mood swings of the nation and actual permanent change in the country. This is why cameron calling for a referendum on leaving eu was such a stuffty thing to do, no one can comprehend all the moving parts in leaving the EU, but the people had to make a choice so they went with one of emotion, since the one of reason couldn't possibly appeal to them for being so complex. The reason the electoral college exists is if you have the large concentrations of populations with the same weight as the small concentrations, only the needs of large cities will be served. But imagine if suddenly you got rid of all the small rural areas, the farming areas, the foresting areas etc etc, the country would collapse to its knees in chaos and lack of infrastructure. So if the small concentrations of population are essentially irrelevant, the backbone of the entire nation is unrepresented. A country first and foremost is reliant on each part of it working properly with each other, its primary secondary tertiary and soon quaternary sector, so each of them needs to have their problems addressed and their development ensured, if you go for direct democracy, mainly the interests of the last two sectors are looked after.
