

The real fix would have been to have a better person in the Executive Office, more limitations of their power to extreme scenarios, and consequences for them ignoring other parts of the government to check their power. Of course it would also help for those other branches to also do their jobs for the benefit of the people and not for political or other types of favors.
Yes, the Patriot Act was a complete fuckup. And that situation was avoidable by the GWB admin, at least at that scale. Never let a crisis go to waste.