I have to take issue with the points illustrated.

Debt: US Debt now is NOT the same as French debt then. Under hard money systems, France was definitely in a bind. But US debt is not dependent upon how much gold we have in the vault nor currency in circulation. The debt CAN be an issue but is not definitively one. (See Modern Monetary Theory or MMT).

Govt Disfunction: Yes the one 'estate' could block all initiatives passed by the other two. That system was entrenched and permanent. Yes the US govt- or more specifically, the US House under GOP control has exhibited disfunction- but such disfunction and obstruction are not permanently baked into the system. We have elections every two years and in between, legislators are also subjected to pressure from constituents. Witness the recent attempt by bomb thrower MTG to oust speaker johnson- it fizzled.

The bigger issue IMO is wealth inequality. We need a wealth tax regardless of whether it paid down debt, though using the debt argument would likely speed its implementation. But it is the obscene inequality with wealthy and their "rent seeking" continually enriching them as fewer financial gains go the the middle class and working poor. Thomas Piketty lays this out quite frankly in his monumental book Capital in the 21st Century as well as his smaller book Brief History of Equality