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The American political system was designed for weak parties, and geographical representation above all, in a political climate where there were significant cultural differences between regions.
The last time we updated the core rules around districting (435 seats divided as closely to proportionally as possible among the states, with all states being guaranteed at least one seat, in single member districts) was in 1929, when we had a relatively weak federal government, very weak political parties, before the rise of broadcasting (much less national broadcasting, or national television, or cable TV networks, or universal phone service, or internet, or social media). We had 48 states. The population was about 120 million, and a substantial number of citizens didn't actually speak English at home.
And so it was the vote for the person that was the norm. Plenty of people could and did "switch parties" to vote for the candidate they liked most. Parties couldn't expel politicians they didn't like, so most political issues weren't actually staked out by party line.
But now, we have national parties where even local school governance issues look to the national parties for guidance. And now the parties are strong, where an elected representative is basically powerless to resist even their own party's agenda. And a bunch of subjects that weren't partisan have become partisan. All while affiliations with other categories have weakened: fewer ethnic or religious enclaves, less self identity with place of birth, more cultural homogenization between regions, etc.
So it makes sense to switch to a party-based system, with multi member districts and multiple parties. But that isn't what we have now, and neither side wants to give up the resources and infrastructure they've set up to give themselves an advantage in the current system.
Another thing was that in the past it wasn't actually possible to properly coordinate parties. Communications technology just wasn't there. I'm sure every congressman had a high-tech "telephone" in their house, but they weren't always home, and there certainly weren't answering machines.
More importantly, mass media wasn't there either. People knew their reps from local town halls and canvassing. They weren't bombarded with mass media featuring the president or the party leader. Sure, they'd show up in newspapers, but not audio/video. So, that meant that congressional reps had a lot more "fame" in their districts, and the leaders had a lot less. So, that gave the reps more independence.
Money also was less of a factor. It's always been a problem with US democracy, but national parties didn't have a stranglehold over their members because of money like they do today.