Philadelphia in 1787. They decided to scrap the Articles of Confederation and replace it with a new document: the Constitution.

America's new government would have a chief executive: the President of the United States. The Founding Fathers knew that the first one would be George Washington. They also established the Electoral College, which mediated the process of popular vote to select presidents.

The Supreme Court was created to act as America's to judicial body. It would be equal to the executive and legislative branches. The Court's members would be chosen by the President and approved by the Senate.

The legislature would be bicameral. Each state has equal representation in the Senate, but in the House of Representatives each state had representation in proportion to its population. It was also established that congress would manage the country's finances.

The Constitution fixed many of the problems that had plagued America's first government. Although it remains in effect today, parts of it are outdated, and the country's government often does not work very well.

The Articles of Confederation failed because they did not give Congress and the national government enough power.  The new United States just fought a war to end what they considered tyrannical rule of a strong government that overpowered local government and the leaders of the U.S. feared a powerful central government.  Because of this, they did not give the central government the power it needed to rule effectively.  It did not give Congress the power to tax, so the government ended up printing money which caused inflation. It did not give Congress the power to draft troops, so the U.S. military was small leaving the U.S. weak.  Congress did not have the power to control interstate commerce or stop states from printing their own money, causing economic chaos within the U.S. The Articles did not give Congress the power to place tariffs on foreign goods, hurting American businesses that could not compete with cheaper British goods. The U.S. government had no chief executive so there was no one to enforce the laws that were passed.  The list can go on. With the rebellion led by Daniel Shays in Massachusetts, the leaders of the U.S. realized the Articles were not working which led to the Constitutional Convention where the Articles were abandoned and the new U.S. Constitution was written.

The Constitution addressed many of the problems created by the Articles by creating a federal system of government with a much more powerful national government. It gave the national government the power to tax, draft troops, control interstate commerce, etc.   It also created an executive branch and a federal court system, both of which were lacking under the Articles of Confederation.  The greatest argument against the new Constitution was that it gave the national government too much power.  This argument was addressed by the framers by creating a system of checks and balances, creating a system with three branches, each with its own separate powers (separation of powers), and creating a federal system where powers were divided between the federal government and state governments, with some powers delegated to the federal government, some reserved to the states and some shared by both.

The Articles of Confederation and Perpetual Union, often shortened in common usage to the Articles of Confederation, was the first constitution of the fledgling United States of America. It was approved by Congress on November 15, 1777, and after ratification by all thirteen states, it finally came into force on March 1, 1781. It established a government and promoted free travel and trade. However, its inherent weaknesses made it necessary to draft and adopt a new and stronger US Constitution, which replaced the Articles of Confederation in early 1789.

There are several reasons why the Articles of Confederation failed. One of the main difficulties under the Articles of Confederation was the inability of the federal government to levy taxes. The United States had incurred substantial debt during the Revolutionary War, but without a system of federal taxation, the country was unable to pay back its creditors. The federal government had to request money from the states, and there was no system of enforcement to compel the states to honor their financial obligations to the government. To make up for the shortfall, Congress printed more money, causing the value of the currency to depreciate. Additionally, Congress did not have the authority to regulate commerce, which caused chaos as each state implemented individual trade policies.

The Articles allowed Congress to maintain a Continental Army in times of need, but it did not provide Congress with the authority to compel the states to supply troops, funds, and supplies. The states each maintained individual armies and navies, but this system made it difficult to unify in the face of a national threat.

The other major failure in the Articles of Confederation was the document's limited vision of what form the federal government would take. Under the Articles, Congress was the only federal institution, so there was no balance of power. The newer, stronger US Constitution provided for three branches of government: the executive branch (the president), the legislative branch (Congress), and the judicial branch (the Supreme Court and other federal courts). These three branches formed a system of checks and balances so that no single branch of government would become too powerful.

They failed because they did not manage to convince the elites of society that their interests would be protected by the sorts of governments that sprang up under the Articles.

During the time that the US was under the Articles, there were various kinds of economic problems. The state governments' responses to the problems (spurred by the demands of the common people who were being hurt most by the problems) hurt the interests of the elites. They also convinced the elites that the nation would not be able to prosper economically under the sorts of governments that would take those steps.

So, the Articles failed because the elites who took the most interest in government felt that the governments were acting in ways that were bad for a) the interests of the elites and b) the long-term interests of the country as a whole.

First, we have to realize that it is not objectively true to say that the Articles of Confederation were a failure.  This is more of an opinion than a fact.  After all, the Articles were in force as the US won the Revolutionary War and kept the country together for another eight years after that.  This at least makes it possible to say they were a success.

If we do say the Articles were a failure, it was because they did not give the federal government enough power.  The Articles were written at a time when the Americans were trying to break away from England, which had a strong central government.  Therefore, the Articles created a very weak central government in response.  The government was not able to tax the people.  It was not able to require the states to do anything.  It was not even able to regulate trade between the states.  It did not have a president and it did not have a judicial branch.

Because of these things, the US had some problems.  One of the problems was that states came into conflict with one another.  They had trade wars with one another, harming the overall economy.  The inability to tax made it impossible for the US to create any sort of a strong military.  These sorts of problems led some in the United States to feel that the Articles had failed and to call for a new constitution.

The greatest failure of the Articles of Confederation was that it played on the fear and distrust of government that came as a result of the tyrannical abuses of King George III and the British Parliament during the revolutionary era.  The Americans obviously needed a government, but were very concerned about losing the freedom they had just won to a corrupt national government.  

The first failure was the lack of a true leader.  The American fear of tyranny led them to appoint an executive committee instead of having a singular executive.  The national government was granted the power to pass laws, but it did not have the ability to enforce those same laws.  In effect, there were national suggestions, not laws.  Along the same lines, the national government could request funds from the states but it did not have the power to levy taxes.  The new nation's fear of abuse led them to create a government that would soon be a rudderless and broke, resulting in a weak nation incapable of sustaining itself without significant political change.