A friend has informed me that the world of Political Psychology has been shaken up by a presentation about "the fall of Democracy". I have a few words in response.
I have two different answers which refer to different aspects of this situation.
1. In comparison to other systems, except for perhaps primitive native tribal governance, Democracy has been far superior and we won't forget that. It is government by committee.
2. Our current problems, both domestic and internationally, may stem from a different and surprising drive. It is the difference between seeking an Ideal and of simply governing the people as they are (with all their faults).
In case of 1, Democracy simply wins.
In case of 2, we are currently seeing the Left and Right split drastically, as it was in the 1960s because one wants to strive toward the Ideals of the Constitution (the Founder's dream) and the other is the "culture wars" pragmatic side which wishes to remain as we have always been and not strive for any ideals except that the existing hierarchies be strengthened.
The latter is difficult because the Right-Wing political operatives have sought to use the energy of the Right to gain more political power and this has pushed the Left to do the same, ergo split. The answer is for both to give ground and find compromise, but that can't happen until the Right finds their approach isn't giving them what they want.
Internationally, America has tried since Woodrow Wilson (at least) to "promote Democracy" abroad. In many ways this has been terrific, but as with the domestic insistence by some to remain the same, internationally there will always be some people who don't want to "reach for any ideal" which isn't their own. So, America has to pull back internationally, let everyone settle-in and see if they like where things are and then perhaps in 30 years we can have another new approach.
