That's where proper institutions and planning come into play. Yes, one human Great Leader doesn't scale. However, an institution that plans ahead and inter-disciplinary teams and honest planning for the situations within its purview, and then activate them when needed, that can scale.

That's exactly what Trump dismantled, in the form of the pandemic preparedness office. There are lots of non-political agencies that do their job and do it well because they're run by experts in the field rather than political appointees. Or, rather, that was the case until Trump decided to politicize them, too.

Good government is hard to scale, but it can be done. Abusive government can exist at any size.

(The absence of government lasts for about 15 minutes until hierarchies start to form on their own and some gang leader starts playing king of the hill.)