I presume that much of the absolutely most essential services have had to move underground, beyond reach of such things.

Remember that letter sent out by most of the top security people in the nation, that if Trump won a second time rather than ~~Biden~~ anyone else, that America would - not might, would - fall to Russia? Trump surely would not be so petty as to fire all those who signed it once in office, thereby leaving this country exposed without any intelligence capabilities (hehe, in more ways than one:-P)?

We came so close to it all being over, but nonetheless managed to dodge one bullet that almost ended this "experiment in democracy", and now it's 4 years later so time to reload this Russian Roulette round and play again... Except this time with that SCOTUS ruling that nobody seems to talk about anymore, and with Project 2025, the stakes are higher than ever before and this is for sure the last election that we'll ever have to do ever again (as Trump himself literally said) - unless ofc Democrats win and then ofc we'll simply repeat this roulette again in another 4 years time.

How the fuck is this country even still standing at this point with this chicanery and buffoonery at the reigns?

Because it's basically the same everywhere?

How the fuck is this country even still standing at this point with this chicanery and buffoonery at the reigns?

Basically because various parts of the government were pitted against each other, by design. Various organizations and levels of government have their own objectives, interests and resources and operate with varying amounts of independence and interdependence. It's frankly messy and creates some inefficiency, but it's sort of like biodiversity - a problem that impacts part of the government doesn't impact all of it in the same way or at the same time, so it doesn't completely collapse or grind to a halt.