To be fair,  the &quot;New Deal&quot; regime was perceived to be failing circa 1970.<p>For instance,  the New Deal left racism intact in the South,  there was the Vietnam war,  the &quot;Spirit of &#x27;68&quot;,  high inflation,  a huge expansion of regulations leading to more problems (for instance the 1974 model year of automobiles were awful because they had to satisfy stricter emission standards without a perfected catalytic converter,  etc.)  There was the cult boom and the strange fact that &quot;The Greening of America&quot; sold millions of copies.<p>In 1979 Merril Lynch was a penny stock,  in many ways capitalism seemed to be on the ropes.  If you don&#x27;t believe me look at &quot;Legitimation Crisis&quot; by Habermas.<p>One contemporary diagnosis of the condition was that there was &quot;too much democracy&quot; and if you look at what happened,  all of a sudden the door got slammed on people like Ralph Nader and the range of what you could ask Washington for diminished over the 1980s,  with the 1990s sealing the deal -- at that point the lobbying system became almost entirely focuses around tax breaks for special interests with an occasional scam like &quot;Medicare Advantage&quot;.<p>For instance in the 1980s you still saw environmental legislation being passed,  but once Clinton got in the Republicans ran fanatical resistance until getting solid control of the House and since then there has been gridlock.<p>People like the Koch brothers threw unlimited money at promoting right wing ideas,  Fox News has a 24 hours hate whenever there is a democrat in the White House,  etc.<p>This has led to a new condition of ungovernability which is as much a riot of the rich (who funded 17 losers to run for the Republican party because Conservatism makes them feel warm and fuzzy) as a riot of the middle class.<p>&quot;Boaty McBoatface&quot; sealed the deal for Brexit because it symbolizes what &quot;democracy&quot; is about these days.  They ask your opinion,  because they want to look legitimate,  but they don&#x27;t honor it.