The masses....? I think you've lost it a bit here.

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Democracy (at least the US flavor of it) has run its course and is no longer working - since apparently the president can appoint the top brass of the judicial branch, and the house can just make legal action against the president go away. To name a few examples. Also voting is not considered a right or obligation, but a privilege. I can go on.

Technical point, but US democracy has survived a literal civil war in the past and been fine. The US would continue doing fine if it carried on this way for another 100 years. Although the politicians might want to implement some wealth creation policies imho instead of experiments with literally banning working.

The change is the corruption is visible now that the internet is a thing. The making of the democratic sausage has always been a disgusting process.