When the constitution was first written up, senators were all appointed. People had to fight to amend the constitution to allow us to even vote for senators. And the presidency was definitely not meant to have as much impact as it does today. The whole thing seemed drawn up to give the "vibes" of a democracy while protecting elite interests. In fact James Madison basically explicitly admits this in Federalist No. 10. He supposed that true democracy would result in people voting to redistribute wealth and, the founding fathers all being bourgeois, that just wouldn't do.