Now we're at a top 3 idea which haunts me. We have everything to make life so amazing now, but we just can't let go of these defunct paradigms that drag us down into a lower common denominator existence.
To have an enlightened community you need enlightened members. Social media struggles to even have people read and heed simple posting rules.
Ignoring the former and only considering the latter, as others have mentioned, mods serve a janitorial function. If you anticipate a stable user population, you could implement terms for mods, so no one has the role for more than, say, a month. Like students in Japan who have to clean their own classrooms, having all members take a turn might help. You could have more than 1 mod at a time with a staggered start so that (a) they get experienced support and (b) accountability/prevention to prevent someone from taking over. Finally a 3rd role, someone who's only ability is to boot a mod if needed