While there's absolutely an argument to be made that we are a literally thanatocratic state based on the almost religious following of the Constitution and Bill of Rights enshrining the Founding Fathers as deific figures whose edicts are to be followed sans modernization, my use of thanatocracy is "everyone who actually runs the show is like five years tops from keeling over and as such, keeps it so that the only views that matter in federal American politics are those whose owners and pushers will be dead long before they ever have to feel the knock-on effects of their policy." Mildly hyperbolic, yeah, but "thanatocracy" rolls off the tongue better than "gerontocracy", which is what the halls of Congress really count as.