> it seems to take only the inevitable one or two odd instances of corruption to start the rot that will bring it down

This seems to be based on the premise that there could ever be a system that was somehow perfectly free or corruption to begin with.

I think that’s far fetched. I think all human systems are messy and are going to contain some instances of corruption.

The question is simply whether the level of corruption reaches the level that cancels out the benefits of the system as a whole, or not.