Moderators are incompetent hacks with no political knowledge.
They should have a panel of the top general, most recent american economic Nobel laureate (or some equivalent), most recently retired surgeon general and attorneys general write the questions which are then presented by a moderator, then the author of each question responds to their answers and if required asks a single follow up question to each debator.
I think this is a great point. All the moderators are media personalities without a background so they can't really claim expert knowledge on the issues. But the panel of experts I think is spot on to create this basis of expertise or fact.
The single follow up used to be the norm. e.g. "candidates have 2 minute responses with a 30 second follow up" (strictly adhered to time)
also give them the authority to mute a candidate's mic for breaking rules, like talking over someone else when they don't have the floor. perhaps you can have a separate umpire type character. record what's going in the mic and release it 7 days later for transparency but don't let it get messy