I agree that the parties have failed, but I don't believe a rules-based solution is necessary. Trump has proven that a powerful leader can enforce party discipline. Unfortunately, this particular strong leader is a Nazi, but that's really a detail. A popular ex-president who believes in the party system could restore that system for at least one party. The other party would just have to keep losing until it realized that maybe party machinery has a purpose.

Unfortunately, the only recent examples of party discipline are exceptions that prove the rule. The aforementioned orange turd shows us what's bad about parties picking candidates, and Hillary's awful campaign shows how picking the most qualified person isn't enough if she can't campaign her way out of a paper bag. It is fascinating, though, that the Republican Party's epic fail in 2016 produced a leader who demonstrates how effective a party could be if it had the right leader.