All the maneuvering and theatrics over the razor-thin reelection of Mike Johnson, the 52-year-old Louisiana Republican, as speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives in the 119th Congress was not what the Constitution’s authors intended.

Article 1, section 2 cryptically provides, “The House of Representatives shall choose their Speaker and other Officers … ” It does not define the speaker’s powers. It does not specify qualifications for the post. The office awakened no debate at the constitutional convention or state ratification votes. It seems probable that the speaker’s role was intended largely as a traffic cop. Does anyone even remember the name of the first House speaker, Frederick Muhlenberg, a Pennsylvania Federalist and Lutheran pastor?

The speakership evolved into a virtual dictatorship under Joseph Cannon (R-Illinois) largely through control of committee assignments and the legislative agenda. Cannon’s tyranny provoked something of a revolt in 1910 led by Republican George Norris (Nebraska) to clip the speaker’s wings. Power devolved back to standing committees and their chairpersons where the real work of the House was done.

Then came the 1994 revolution ushered in by Newt Gingrich (R-Georgia) restoring the bad old days of Cannon. Gingrich concentrated power in the speakership by starving committees and member offices of needed funds and staff, controlling committee chairs and assignments and acting as a gatekeeper deciding which bills received a floor vote and under what rules.

The rank and file were reduced to serfs on a plantation. The congressional workforce plunged by 33%. Thousand-page bills in obscure language that no member could digest were voted on in hours or days by the speaker’s decree.

No successor to Gingrich, Republican or Democrat, has been willing to surrender power back to committees, committee chairs or individual members as the principles of separation of powers and political wisdom ordain. The late U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-New Jersey) lamented, “Our available resources and our policy staffs, the brains of Congress, have been so depleted that we can’t do our jobs properly.” Corporations devote more resources to lobby Congress than Congress spends to fund itself.

Separation of powers is meant to place some limits on political extremism. By dispersing power, it forces political compromise toward an Aristotelian mean. Wrenching oscillations are avoided.

The White House exulted in the transformation of the House into a speaker’s monarchy. It was easier to negotiate legislation with one than with many. But the result has been a degradation of legislative deliberation and debate and an authentic separation of Congress from the White House. The congressional workweek has shrunk to three days. Committee hearings are rare despite the growth of the executive branch into a leviathan sporting an annual budget approaching $7 trillion.

And now the incoming president has become a major player in the selection of the speaker blending legislative and executive power. In the case of Speaker Johnson, it is not too much to say he owes his speakership to President-elect Donald Trump’s flipping the votes of naysayer Republican Reps. Keith Self of Texas and Ralph Norman of South Carolina.

Johnson should downsize his office to its pre-Gingrich modesty. The steering committee responsible for committee assignments should be selected at random from the rank and file. Committees should elect their chairs who should be empowered to force bills to a floor vote.

Johnson should welcome downsizing to fragment responsibility. The status quo for him is a political nightmare. Nine Republicans at any time could move to vacate the speakership. Twelve have already voiced skepticism of the speaker’s leadership. He has no margin for error. Thomas Jefferson advised that “great innovations should not be forced on slender majorities.” Yet the latter is all Johnson has in hand to promote President-elect Trump’s legislative agenda.

The ball is in Johnson’s court to downsize his office and restore it to something closer to what the framers intended. On this overdue assignment, he is unlikely to confront any headwinds from his Republican colleagues.

Armstrong Williams (www.armstrongwilliams.com; @arightside) is a political analyst, syndicated columnist and owner of the broadcasting company, Howard Stirk Holdings. He is also part owner of The Baltimore Sun.