Ask HN: What would need to be built to replace current federal institutions?

I know this is a big question with a lot of different answers but I'm curious to hear what the Hacker News community thinks about it.

I've been thinking a lot about this in general but since the 2016 US Presidential Election, it seems like now would be a better time than ever to think about what it might take to replace the current institutions traditionally supported by the federal government. There are a lot of reasons for having the various federal institutions (i.e. the tragedy of the commons, help those otherwise marginalized etc.) and they take a lot to run but how might they be built if they could be built starting from scratch with the tools available today? How much could be done through technology? How much couldn't? Would the states be the best place to take up the slack? Or would private institutions be better?

Curious to hear what people think...