How Does the Balance Team Work?

Is it just a few set rioters who decide what to change and with what numbers arbitrarily? It seems genuinely small because if there were any decent number of people reviewing these, they would never have nerfed Azir's range by 19% or Kassadin's trademark ultimate by 21%. They would have the common sense to realize that this wouldn't nerf them, it would butcher any gameplay they had.

Why isn't their more of a balance committee with votes on how champion balance should be handled? It could be composed of Diamond, Master, and Challenger level players only, with votes restricted to a certain number of games played with a given champion minimum. Even if they don't follow all votes to a T, they would at least have a general sense of what should be done.

Does the balance team even play this game? Serious question.

The trend seems spiraling downward. Most of the worst nerfs have been recent. Syndra, Fizz, Azir, Kassadin, Veigar. Zilean's passive. It's not very reassuring.