Opinion: Congress began ceding power to presidents long before Trump

Some years back, I fired off a forgettable social media post referencing the “three co-equal branches” of government. A friend — a smart journalist steeped in American political history — responded with a gentle correction reminding me that Congress was the “supreme branch,” befitting its Article I status in the United States Constitution.

Turns out we were both wrong, albeit for slightly different reasons.

Since the turn of the century, Congress has increasingly functioned as a...