>>57828 (OP)
The difference between animals and humans is that animals would never allow for a leader that's a harmful actor, while with humans that's pretty much a given in any system that ages well enough. The cause is always that the system runs best if no one interrupts it. Thus the system tries to create political overreach and subjugation to get ever more aspects of life under its control. This is, of course, exploited by those at the top of the system for wealth and power, especially if there's no one there to oppose them anymore.
Idiotically the system is expected to fix itself by using itself, which is why systems always end by either cratering entirely or uprisings: While everyone trying to fix anything is expected to go the legal route to try to fix a broken system the broken system instead creates beneficial power structures outside of it and thus outside the control of the people trying to fix the broken systems.
Such could be NGOs that receive funding (like the shills operating on tax payer money to spam, disrupt and demoralize on 4chan or anywhere else against the people whose tax money they get), big corporations trying to weasel their way into political influence by mutual benefit (like massive private data theft and user tracking that allows them to sell the data and the government to have it and use it against people they don't like) or glownigger agencies that just do whatever and aren't held accountable for anything because it's secret (9 / 11; shooter grooming or creating terror cells to justify surveillance laws; drug epidemic to finance themselves).
Humans had thousands of years to come up with a system that works. They didn't. And they won't in another few thousand years. The tragedy stems from the majority of people being clueless, careless or indifferent - the NPCs: Willing to take all the nice things that civilization offers without putting accountability and responsibility on the table as a demand. For them it's just: "Follow the protocol". I understand that people want a system that just works, that they can trust, exist in and exist for but that's just not how it is and not how it has ever been. Governments have always killed the majority of their people throughout history, either due to incompetence or aggression. Ironically the competent people with strong opinions that they can properly reason for are constantly removed in any system because they're troublemakers. The public lets it happen because they don't know / care / understand. From then on you get yes-men, incompetence chaos, corruption until it all hits the wall, predictably.
Freedom, reasonable behavior, accountability, transparency. It's not that hard to run a good system. It just doesn't offer any personal benefit to "just do a good job" without getting extra wealth and power. Thus a character trait is needed that understands that this is good enough and is content with it instead of greedy and selfish for that personal gain of wealth and power via sellout / bribe mentality, no matter the harm for others. This refers to functional cogs in a machine that understand the purpose and limitations of their role, as well as the broader scope it serves. Basically a non-greedy leadership that manages well without trying to personally benefit.