I don't think the experience of the four hellish years of 45 justifies any takeaway to the effect of "the system works" or constitutional checks and balances and fetters work. Quite the contrary.
Trump and his wrecking crew did severe and lasting damage, and unleashed outstanding cruelty to millions of people over the course of 4 years. To claim that a "President Ted Cruz" would be constrained by courts is to be deeply naïve.
Sure Trump did face opposition and resistance from blue states and the Dem-led House constrained his executive agenda from 2018 onwards but he still had vast control over the federal branch and through the Senate he transformed the judiciary and of course he put saboteurs in the USPS and other parts, and basically made ICE his personal goon squad.
And we saw how he transformed the GOP into his own image to the point that it's not a political party but a criminal enterprise with delusions of grandeur with thuggishness across the GOP ecosystem.