"I think most of those vast emergency dictatorial powers were instituted about the time of the original Patriot Act (if not during the Civil War). IIRC, four or five top government officials had to concur in order to trigger them, e.g., Secretary of State, National Security Advisor, some military, and the like."
Uhm... no.
The Patriot Act did not create a class of emergency, essentially dictatorial, powers for the president to be enabled with the concurrence of other cabinet members.
The US Constitution extends NO class of emergency powers to the President.
At least three presidents, Lincoln, Roosevelt, and Truman, claimed emergency powers to act in time of national emergency -- Lincoln with the suspension of habeas corpus, Roosevelt with the interment of Japanese Americans, and Truman to nationalize steel mills.
All three instances were reviewed by the courts -- in two of those, Lincoln and Truman -- the courts denied the President's claim of emergency powers. Lincoln ignored the court order; Truman followed it.
Despite what you hear from the mouth breathing howler monkeys of doom, the President has no power, nor ability, to suspend elections, suspend the Constitution (although Lincoln effectively did), dissolve Congress (the only reason Lincoln was able to ignore the Supreme Court's ruling on habeas corpus was that Congress tacitly agreed with it and took no action to overturn it.
