Maslow's Sledgehammer

Once the radicals have thoroughly demolished the economy and the federal government's ability to function, and their supporters are forced to acknowledge how bad it is, most won’t cop to their part in it. They’ll say it’s just more proof that all politicians are liars who let you down, so we need even more deranged outsiders to come in and do things hyperbolically differently.

For most of history, crowds reverted to the mean. Fervor eventually drained, and they moved toward the center. That, I think is gone. Our nation of aristocrats will just keep huffily demanding relief from their imagined oppressors (and from the real ills created by previous relief efforts).