Or was it written as the "operating system" for a free society, by and for ordinary men, women, and children, and intended to be read and understood by everyone?

Does not the insane, relentless struggle, year after year, decade after decade, excuse after lame excuse, to write certain provisions out of the Constitution that those in authority don't really approve of, comprise that "long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evincing a design to reduce them (meaning you and me) under absolute despotism" that Thomas Jefferson warned us about in The Declaration of Independence?

As you probably expected, I'm writing here of the Second Article of the Bill of Rights, which is the highest law of the land: "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed."
Look up the definition of "infringe". It's what "progressives" call "gradualism."