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I don't think there's any inherent reason why the US system is worse than a parliamentary one. Just look at the recent Brexit mess for an example of the problems the latter can get into. In any case, over here we seem to see our elections as increasingly presidential. We had televised debates in 2015 and (to a lesser extent) 2017, an election called in part because Theresa May was worried the 2015 mandate wasn't hers, despite there being no legal basis for that concern. And there's no doubt that most voters are voting on which leader they want to be Prime Minister as if it was a Presidential election.

Something that strikes me as odd about the US system is the lack of relationship there can be between candidate and party. Did Trump have any connection to the Republican party before his run? And the Democrats were considering Saunders, who sat in the Senate as an independent.

Perhaps more concerning is the apparent requirement that candidates be independently wealthy in order to finance a campaign. I remember thinking when Theresa May first met Donald Trump that the founding fathers might have been surprised that the leader of the US was a hereditary millionaire while the leader of the UK was a clergyman's daughter.

EDIT - meanwhile Ransium's proposal Repeal Endangered Species Protection has been submitted to the WA and will probably be the next motion at vote. Don't panic, he hasn't suddenly gone anti-environmental. A more robust replacement is ready and waiting.