"You seem to ignore the fact there are millions of unelected civil servants who run the state and never get elected or chosen by the people. "
Is that any different from the middle managers who run every aspect of your daily life and who have been appointed by unaccountables in the boardroom?
The difference is that as a citizen, you get to hold the chief accountable. If he hires bad people, you can fire him. You cant do that at work. Your only choice is to change system. Like I said, you can also change countries if you dont like your President. There is also local politics, where you get to elect many people with local power, from local govt. to school boards and fire chiefs. But no, you dont get to hire the janitor. We choose the executives, we dont do their work for them. But we can vote on the quality of their execution - including who they hired and their competence.
In this election, we can look at the teams that the candidates are building around themselves, and vote accordingly, for example.