That's not entirely true. As a 501(c)(3) organization, they are bound to honor their founding bylaws on pain of having their tax-exempt status revoked w/ retroactive consequences. I won't comment on whether this is the fault of the bylaws or the IRS... but in the end I think we can agree that this was evidently not an effective enforcement mechanism.

As for the whole "cleverness" topic... it wasn't designed as an oligarchy, that's merely what it has devolved into. The saying "too clever by half" exists with good reason