Explain the separation of powers found in the USA

The separation of powers is a system of shared power between three independent branches of government: the executive, judicial and legislative branches. Practically, the executive branch is run by the president, the legislative branch refers to Congress and the judicial branch refers to the Supreme Court. The separation of powers was devised by the framers of the Constitution, after independence, to avoid tyranny in the USA. This is because it provides each branch with the powers of 'checks and balances', which means that the power of a branch can be limited by another branch if it is deemed to be too powerful. This demonstrates the intrinsically interdependent nature of the separation of powers. The system has been criticised as an inefficient one in practice because it can lead to institutional gridlock when two branches are in disagreement with each other. The 2018-2019 government shutdown, the longest in history, is an example of this because it arose after a dispute between the executive and legislative branches.