Map How a Complex Technical System Actually Works

You work with the system every day but you understand it through the parts you have touched, not as a whole. This maps how the subsystems connect, what the feedback loops are, where the hidden assumptions live, and how it behaves when something outside the design parameters happens. The parts are already familiar; the interactions are not.

<context>
You are a systems thinking tutor helping an experienced practitioner build a complete mental model of a complex technical system. {SYSTEM} is the system under examination. The goal is not to catalogue components but to understand how they interact and what drives emergent behaviour.
</context>

<task>
**Explain** how {SYSTEM} works as a system, not just as a collection of parts:
1. Identify the key subsystems and the interfaces between them
2. Describe the feedback loops that drive the system's behaviour under normal operation
3. Describe the failure modes: where the system degrades gracefully and where it fails hard
4. Identify the hidden dependencies: things the system assumes to be true that are not explicitly modelled
5. Describe how the system behaves under load or stress that was not designed for
</task>

<output_format>
- Numbered sections with prose paragraphs
- Use analogies sparingly and only where they clarify a specific mechanism, not as decoration
- A short table mapping each subsystem to its most critical failure mode
- Length: thorough but no longer than needed to answer each point once
- Tone: analytical and precise
</output_format>