Like a lot of countries, the constitutional set of checks and balances was predicated on the fact that the majority of those involved were basically trying to "do the right thing". It's effectively a state-level gentleman's agreement, where it is assumed that any bad actor is in the minority, and can be dealt with while they remain the minority.

This falls apart if they're not the minority - i.e. you failed to deal with them while they were a minority. There were levers designed expressly to deal with things like this - impeachment, etc. - they weren't used because one side thought that it would play out in their favour. As they will probably learn, it plays out in nobodies favour.